The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 : a study based on documentary evidence

The Red Insurrection
in Finland in 1918

A STUDY BASED ON
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

m

BY

HENNING SQDERHJELM

V

3^*1

THE RED INSURRECTION
IN FINLAND IN 1918

The Red Insurrection
in Finland in 1918

A STUDY BASED ON
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

BY

HENNING SODERHJELM, Ph.D.

Translated by Anne I. FAUSB0LL

LONDON

Harrison and Sons, Printers in Ordinary to Hit Majesty

45-47. St. Martins Lane W.C2

Price Three Shillings and Sixpence Net.

CONTENTS.

THE PRELUDE.

i. The Historical Background ...

2. From the Outbreak of the War to the Russian Revo-

lution

3. The March Revolution in Russia and the Position of

Finland

4. Occurrences of the Autumn and Winter : —

October

November

December

January ...

PAGE

1

12

15

28
32
49
54

THE INSURRECTION.

1 . Red and White : General Characteristics

2. The Outbreak of the Insurrection

3. The Red Army

4. The Leadership of the Red

5. The Red and their Opponents

6. The Fall of the Red Power

7. Postscript

83

89

99

no

120

M7
156

THE PRELUDE.

On the 27th January, 1918, " Finland's Working-men's
Executive Committee " announced that Finland's working-
men had proceeded to revolution, that the lawful govern-
1 in nt had been overthrown, and that all power in Finland
had now passed over to the organised working-men and
their revolutionary organs.

Hereby the civil war was declared which was to
ravage Finland's soil and demand such painful sacrifices.
The revolutionaries — the " Red " — and their Russian
allies succeeded in taking possession of the southern
parts of the country and the largest cities here. But
in the north the loyal citizens — the " White " — took up
arms to free the country from the rebels. They cleared
the whole of North Finland and marched towards the
south. A long front was formed, beginning at the coast
of the Gulf of Bothnia, running in a wide sweep round
Tammerfors and on to the east, going on the south side
of St. Michel to the river Vuoksen, and ending south of
the latter's outfall in lake Ladoga by the Finno-Russian
frontier. It was not, however, until the middle of March
that the " White " army was ready to proceed to a
serious offensive, and by the first days of April, with
the assistance of volunteers from Sweden, it had broken
up the main forces of the " Red " and conquered
Tammerfors. At the same time a German relief expedi-
tion, called in by the Finnish Government, landed at
Hang6, and after a quick advance took the capital,
Helsingfors. Now defeat followed upon defeat for the
" Red " army, and at the beginning of May the insur-
rection was definitely subdued. The leaders of the revo-
lutionaries had fled to Russia, and more than 70,000 men

VU1

of their army had been captured by the victors. The most
ignominious and bloodiest episode in the history of
Finland was hereby closed.

What was the meaning of this revolution and this
insurrection ? What were its wishes, what its aims, and
what caused it ? These questions will be quite briefly
answered in the present little volume. Any complete
statement cannot, of course, as yet be given, and least
of all can there be any attempt at an historical account
of the war. But it has seemed necessary already now
to give interested people abroad a description of the
psychology of the movement based upon reliable docu-
ments— and exclusively on such. This is attained partly
by examining the causes of the revolution and the pre-
parations for it, and partly by acquainting oneself with
the conception of the " Red " themselves as it is revealed
in the accounts and evidence in their papers, of which
a great deal have fortunately been found which are of
invaluable benefit for the history of the insurrection.
* * * * *

This account was written at the suggestion of persons
who have been in close touch with the events. While
I was doing service in one of the offices established for
winding up the affairs of the insurrection, I was enabled
to carry out this task, and obtain an insight into all the
documents hitherto brought to light, through the friendly
assistance of Senator A. Frey and the courtesy of the
chiefs and the staff. For this I desire to express my
grateful acknowledgments.

}

THE RED INSURRECTION.

i. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND.

For the last twenty years Finland has lived under
politically abnormal conditions. For twenty years an
intense struggle against Russian oppression has set its
Stamp on the whole spiritual existence of the people.
At the same time the material conditions of life have
run through a rapid development for great portions of
the people. The last decades have seen industrialism
making more and more headway into a people which
before may be said to have virtually consisted of farmers
and Government functionaries only. Towns and manu-
facturing centres have grown with American swiftness,
the city population has been increased chiefly by influx
from the country, the housing question has become
pressing, the labour movement has grown like an
avalanche. Social as well as political conditions have
thrown the country off its balance.

Finland is sparsely populated, her soil yields but
grudgingly, her climate is cold. The character of her
people bears the impression of these harsh conditions.
Dogged, tenacious, stubborn, the Finn has accustomed
himself to fight a troublesome, slow and silent battle
against the hard forces of Nature. He has few neighbours,
and has learnt to trust to himself alone. His thoughts
revolve round his own toil and trouble, and find their
expression in the necessary action, not in sociable words.
He is a hermit, and his emotions are of a strong and
primitive order. He lives for himself only, and is an
out-and-out individualist.

The stranger is to him a stranger, therefore suspe<

A

and dangerous. If anyone does him an injury, it burns
deeper and deeper into his heart and grows into a dark
hatred of the perpetrator. He lacks the power of firing
up and then forgetting, for his character is that of the
solitary and heavy brooder. He is not used to discipline
and quick obedience. He must have a firm confidence in
and an absolute affection for his masters to submit to
them ; but if so, he does it fully. He is a primitive
individualist who does his work after his own mind, and
only subordinates himself to the claims of society when
he is absolutely convinced that it must be.

The consequence of this is that every universal effort,
in order to gain a sure footing in a people thus constituted,
and in order to spread and grow, must have the character
of something sacred, of a religion. It must rank above
every-day claims of utility, must be charged with matter
of such a high spiritual kind that it has power to break
through the craving for seclusion and through indi-
vidualism and lead to a higher order of concord ; it must
create a sympathy closely akin to fanaticism. Those sort
of spiritual movements are known expressly to Finland
from rich experience. There have, of course, been many
purely religious movements, but when the Finnish
National Movement, the endeavour to raise the Finnish
language to a culture-language from having been merely
a vernacular of the common people, came into being in
the middle of the nineteenth century, this also assumed
an almost religious character. This justifiable and very
natural movement grew to such enormous proportions
for the very reason that it was raised to the rank of a
religion. Its purpose was a twofold one, viz., to combat
the predomination of the Swedish language, and to raise
the level of education among the Finnish-speaking element
of the people. In both directions it has often found
fanatical expression, and as the negative results thereof

we find, on the one hand, an often bitter conflict between
the languages ; on the other hand, a worship of theoretical
education, of studies and theoretical knowledge which has
drawn too sharp a distinction between the " educated "
classes, to which the " student examination " for admit-
tance to the university is the only stepping-stone, and
the " uneducated," *.*., those who have no academical
education.

Another spiritual movement which has assumed the
character of a religion — or perhaps rather of an epidemic
— is the total abstention movement. It has had the result :
entire prohibition for the whole country just because
the whole people was stirred up and had the alcohol
question presented to them in the light of a sacred cause
and not as a difficult problem. In the same way the fight
for the co-operative movement has been stamped by a
similar holy ardour, where there has been no talk of
reason or sense, but only of friend or foe.

It is obvious that a people that is thus constituted
ought to live in peace. It will then be able to assert its
fine qualities. It will then be able by its tenacity, its
perseverance, its stubbornness, to create great and
enduring things. But when once it is stirred, when one
after another of the sacred claims knock at its doors,
it rests with leaders, stump orators, lecturers and the
press, whether this people shall be urged towards the
good or the bad. Twenty years ago there was one cause
which really forced the whole nation to fight, the cause
against the unlawful measures adopted for the Russifi-
cation of the country. And the people proved itself
capable of resistance. In spite of every attempt
denationalisation made no progress. A stubborn and
tenacious resistance was offered against the Russian
work of destruction, a defence was made which will
always show as an honourable leaf in the history of

A 2

Finland. The national defence was organised with one
single end in view — the firm adherence to the laws of
the country, the refusal to submit to the Russian decrees.
It was the method of passive resistance, a loyal, quick
and " Western " method. But the severer Russian
pressure became, and the more the bitterness and hatred
against Russian officialdom grew, the more easily could
a more active, a more violent policy of opposition gain
partisans in Finland. Russian autocracy was the enemy
not only of Finland, but of the Russian people as well.
And the methods employed from olden times by the
Russian revolutionaries were anything but passive. Then,
was it not necessary to join forces against the common
foe ? Should not the Russian militant methods be
employed in Finland too ? The answer was both yes
and no. The enemy was common to both, and from this
it followed that the Russian revolutionaries were regarded
with sympathy in Finland and aided when in distress.
But the end aimed at in the struggle was another in
Finland than in Russia. We wished only to regain the
rights we had been robbed of, and after that to work
out our internal development according to our own lights
and to the best of our ability. They laboured for the
revolution, for a general upheaval, for a political and
social liberation of the people, which was to transform
Russia completely. We had laws, we had a sense of
justice, a law-directed Western liberty ; this the Russian
rulers had sought to crush, and this we wanted back
again. The Russians knew only decrees and commands,
police regulations and reports of gendarmes ; they thought
to remodel their country by fresh decrees and regulations
of another description. They were absorbed in dreams
and Utopias, and yearned for an ideal society in which
there was political liberty, and where all social injustice
was set right.

In Finland a party was gradually formed which did
not realise how great was the difference betwrm the aims
of the Russian liberty movement and Finland's struggle
for her rights. This was the Labour Party, which has
incorrectly described itself as the Social-Democrat Party.
This party which, during the rapid growth of the industries,
had developed out of some working-men's associations
conducted in a friendly spirit by the employers, and
which, to begin with, was without all political influence,
gained vitality and thrived through the connection with
Russian revolutionary circles. It got to look at existing
phenomena with Russian eyes, learned to mix up prole-
tariat policy with State emancipation, and to employ
revolutionary methods of action for the gaining of its
ends ; it forgot the huge gulf fixed between Finland's
Western social conditions and the Eastern chaos of
Russia. This fact, that Finland's Labour Party from
the outset struck into Russian paths and made the cause
of the Russian revolutionaries its own ; this was the
original fatal cause that such a thing as the Red Insur-
rection in 1918 became at all possible.

The first results of the tactics of the Labour Party
became evident in the stirring years 1905 and 1906. The
Russo-Japanese War ended in the defeat of Russia
The bitter resentment against the chief men in power
in Russia became so widespread that a general strike
was proclaimed there towards the end of October, 1905.
The stir re-echoed in Finland. This was a " passive "
measure which nobody objected to, so here too a general
strike was proclaimed. All work throughout the country
stopped. The strike included the Government offices, all
means of communication, the factories, the university,
ren the police. The Government of the country, the
lenate, were compelled to resign ; the Russian Governor-
General fled to an ironclad lying in the roads of

Helsingfors ; and the Finnish community put forward its
claims. They were, of course, to the effect that the down-
trodden rights should be restored. But the Labour Party
had not been taken into account. In the course of the
week that the strike lasted, this party showed how strong
it had grown, and its claims were now others than those
of the hated "Bourgeois." It demanded a Constituent
National Assembly, by which the country's future was to
be shaped.

Finland's representative assembly was constituted on
antiquated lines, and within its four estates the working-
man had not been able to gain a hearing. It was, therefore,
a surprise to everybody when they now acted suddenly
with such vigour. This was chiefly felt through the forces
for the maintenance of order which they instituted. As
already mentioned, the police had joined the strike.
Protective corps of volunteers for the maintenance of
order were then formed, consisting chiefly of students
and other young men who wore a white band round
the left arm for a badge. The leaders of the Labour
Party stood doubtful with regard to these bourgeois
organisations ; at first they co-operated with them, but
later on they changed tactics. They established their
own Protective Corps with a red band round the arm —
the first germ of the Red Guard. It now became the
object of the latter to arrogate to itself as much of the
power as possible. So some of the towns of Finland,
amongst others the capital, were " occupied " almost
entirely by the Red. Conflicts between the Red and the
White could not be wholly avoided, for, in the knowledge
of their power, the Labour Party tried to carry through
their claim of a Constituent National Assembly. There
was a moment when revolvers flashed in the hands of
a troop of Red and a troop of White as they met, and
another when the working-men already elected their own

Government at a meeting in a square. But finally they
yielded and contented themselves with the results obtained
by the bourgeoisie groups — the re-establishment of the
country's rights. Still the schism had now become as
plain as daylight ; the Labour press declared that the
upper class had played the people false, and the corps
of the Red Guard were transformed to a purely military
organisation " to safeguard the interests of the working-
man."

The Finnish military had been dissolved in 1901 —
only a battalion of the Guards had been left — but this
also had ceased to exist shortly before the outbreak of
the general strike. Now non-commissioned officers and
privates from the dissolved battalion trained the Red
bands ; the language of command was Russian, and the
actual business of the army somewhat obscure. It was
in touch with Russian revolutionary organisations, and
became a sort of Finnish central exchange for all the
terrorist fanaticism which manifested itself throughout
Russia in the course of the following months ; not the
least so in the neighbouring Baltic provinces, where
excited bands ravaged the large estates with pillage,
murder and incendiarism.

In Finland, too, a lot of anarchist outrages were
committed, and when in July, 1906, a Russian military
revolt broke out in the Sveaborg fortress, the Red Guard
considered it their business to interfere. They took the
side of the revolutionary troops, and even attempted to
bring off another general strike. This attempt was
however, foiled by the opposition of the bourgeoisie
parties, but the affair did not pass without bloodshed.
A band of the White Protection Corps was treacherously
assailed in a square in Helsingfors and the Red, who were
armed with Russian army rifles, shot down seven of its
men.

8

The situation was complicated. Certainly the whole
of Finland sympathised with the Russian revolutionary
movement, but we had — at least to a certain degree —
arrived at a possibility of shaping our own internal
affairs. Therefore no sensible citizen wished to draw our
people into the great Russian muddle. Our strength and
our safeguard were law-abidingness, loyalty ; we did not
want to fling our whole " Western " position to the winds
and plunge into the Eastern maelstrom. Yet the line
between the two was not always easy to find, and the
working-men did not see it. With Finnish doggedness
and stubbornness they had adopted the frail phantasms
and Utopias of the Russians. What were to these latter
only card-houses, built up in a moment of excitement,
and the collapse of which was viewed later on with a
shrug of the shoulders, became to the Finnish working-
man a sacred, solid temple, firmly fixed, and incapable
of ever falling in.

In face of the danger which threatened the unity of
the people from the Labour bands — in hopes of satisfying
them and giving them what they had learned to regard
as a right — the Assembly of Estates, the Lantdag, was
now transformed to a representative assembly so demo-
cratic that the world has never yet seen its like. It
became a Single-Chamber, the 200 representatives of
which were returned by a system of universal suffrage
for all men and women that had completed their twenty-
fourth year. The first elections for this parliament took
place in March, 1907. The Labour Party got eighty
representatives.

In the meanwhile the Red Guard had been dissolved
and the participants in the Sveaborg revolt sentenced
to penal servitude. The Single-Chamber opened up a
new field of work for the Labour Party which therefore
struck into parliamentary paths. They had, however,

read a sufficient number of reports in the papers, about
stormy scenes in the parliaments of the Balkan S
and elsewhere, to know to the full how cheerfully a session
may shape itself with "noise from the Left Pan
applause, interruptions and all sorts of enlivening riots.
The Single-Chamber gave on the whole a very melancholy
picture' of the cultural level of the people.

Upon the improved conditions inaugurated with the
general strike there soon followed a period of increasing
Russian reaction. In Finland, where the Russian policy
of repression had hitherto been regarded wholly and solely
as the outcome of views within the highest bureaucracy,
it was now discovered that also great portions of the
Russian people saw in the national annihilation of Fin-
land a great and necessary mission for the Russian Empire.
The Duma sanctioned illegal measures against Finland.
A fresh era of outrage and violence began for this country.
With a certain weariness and pessimism the policy of
passive resistance was there taken up again. The work
of the Lantdag became mere desolation, partly because
all the protests of the Chamber against the new rule
of unlawfulness were followed by decrees of dissolution ;
partly because the enactments of the Single-Chamber
were never corroborated in St. Petersburg ; and, last but
not least, because the most powerful party in the Lantdag,
the Social Democrats, resorted to tactics of opposition
and obstruction which distorted the decisions and gave
rise to endless, unceremonious debates.

As said before, the Labour Party had struck into
parliamentary paths — that is to say, they now aspired to
gain the means of power that could be obtained in the
altered circumstances in which no overt Russo-Finnish
revolution could be thought of, viz., the majority in the
Lantdag. All their work was agitation against the upper
class, the bourgeoisie, the capitalists. One catchword

10

which proved most effective was the epithet " Butchers
of the People," which had been fastened on the White
Protective Corps during the general strike. " Butchers "
now were all non-working-men, and the word was an
excellent termination to the well-known series — robbers,
bloodsuckers, misers. The class struggle was proclaimed ;
Internationalism, Anti-Militarism, Atheism and Free
Marriage were exalted to new lodestars of humanity.
The industries suffered greatly during the agitation work.
Strike followed upon strike ; the distrust of employers
and foremen was unlimited.

The most melancholy thing about the whole of these
tactics was no doubt the systematically created distrust
of all human motives. The whole activity of the
" bourgeois," all his thoughts and efforts, were directed
only towards one goal — the fleecing of the working-man
in order that he might become rich himself. And the
working-man's sole claim to existence was in his efforts
to obtain better conditions of life ; poverty was the root
of all evil, of all sorrows and sufferings. By this view
the " bourgeois " of Finland, amongst others, were shame-
fully wronged. They had fought bravely for the rights
of their country and on the whole for Western culture
in the common native land. They had been imprisoned,
exiled and sent to Siberia — nay, in 1911-17 some fifty
Government functionaries had been shut up in Russian
prisons because they refused to obey illegal Russian
orders. All this was suppressed in the Labour press,
all this did not exist to the excited working-class ; on
the contrary, Finland's upper classes were represented
as miserable tools in the hands of Tsarism.

The agitation of the Labour Party was mendacious,
brutal and mean. This was chiefly caused by the fact
that the party had never succeeded in securing any
honest, upright and trustworthy leaders. Its touring

II

lecturers, stump orators and editors were almost without
exception persons of weak character and many high-
flown words with the ambitions of strugglers. Its repre-
sentatives in the Lantdag were precisely these lecturers
and editors, besides a number of well-trained voting
automatons. The sole object of the party was to gain
power ; therefore it could never attract men of broader
views or nobler sentiments, although the wave of social
radicalism that swept over the country after 1905 might
have produced many eminent and convinced leaders of
a real Social-Democratic Party.

In ordinary circumstances a seditious agitation like
that of the Labour Party would have called forth strong
opposition and energetic measures of repression. But
now the Russian policy of oppression loomed as a con-
tinual threat in the background, holding, without a
doubt, a still greater danger in store for the country.
Therefore, first and foremost, it was necessary to face the
latter. Besides, the violent attacks, accusations and
threats of the faction leaders were found to be so
exaggerated that it was believed they would gradually
cease to influence even the working-men. This, however,
proved a mistake. The great masses of labourers, recently
arrived in the cities and manufacturing centres, with
Finnish doggedness and fanaticism had espoused that
mixture of extreme Socialistic and Russian revolutionary
doctrines which had so long been preached to them. The
work of agitation against the " upper class " had left a
sediment of dark hatred in their hearts against all other
classes, while these latter, without seeing the division with-
in the people itself — or at least without perceiving its ex-
tent and the danger it carried with it — continued their silent
war of defence against the Russian tyrannous policy.

Such was the state of Finland when the world-war
broke out.

12

2. FROM THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR TO
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

The world-war brought Finland into a peculiar
position. Without an army, with conscription not legally
done away with but put out of practice by the Russians
themselves, she stood as a portion of the Russian Empire
which did not take part in the war. So severe was the
discontent which the Russian policy of repression had
aroused in Finland that Russia did not even deem it
advisable to attempt to enlist military here. On the
other hand, only one wish was prevalent in all classes
and factions : the defeat of Russia. For the experience
of the Russo-Japanese war, as well as ordinary common-
sense, told them that the present regime must come to
an end with a defeat, and the way thus be opened to
liberty for Finland, whereas a victory would get fresh
wind into the sails of the reaction and destroy all our
hopes. Even the leaders of the Labour Party were of this
opinion, all the more so as it was held by the Russian
revolutionary extremists.

Already at the beginning of the war an imperial
manifesto had, however, been issued which boded a
complete assimilation of Finland. And the further the
war proceeded the more severely the Russian pressure
was felt. Huge masses of Russian troops were garrisoned
here, the Russian Baltic fleet filled the ports, the country
was declared to be in a state of war. Through this
a practical Russification of the country was begun<
Street life took on a Russian aspect, the best customers in
the shops were Russians, the erotic successes of the
Russian uniform exposed the community to dangers
of a particular kind. The Russian gendarmery — the
political police showed energetic activity, arrests and the
searching of houses was the order of the day, nay,

13

Russian soldiers even executed Finnish citizens without
as much as asking the permission of the Finnish
authorities. The pressure was insufferable, and the
ning for deliverance from the yoke of Russia became
stronger and stronger. It was obvious enough that the
passive method would not in these circumstances lead
to the goal. Once — in 1905 — it had brought victory
to us, now another vista was before us, and the time for
action seemed to have come. Now at least a more or
less complete liberation from Russian suzerainty might
be thought of and dreamt of. Endeavours of such a
kind could not be called treasonable, for, on the one
hand, Russia had time after time broken her pledges to
Finland, and, on the other hand, it was quite clear of
what military importance Finland was as the sole bridge
to Western Europe, as a port to the fleet, and as the owner

o

of Aland, and this was tantamount to the future exposure
of Finland to a policy of Russification still more intense,
if possible, than hitherto. Ways and means of inter-
fering were considered, and several proposals cropped
up. The plainest illustration of this natural effort of
Finland to get out of the connection with Russia which
was so destructive to her nationality and culture, was
given already in the first year of the war by a number
of volunteers joining the German army, where they
formed a special battalion of chasseurs which, after having
been drilled, was placed on the Eastern front.

For the rest, the war carried with it in Finland the
same difficulties, the same shortage of food and abundance
of money, the same change of values and fortunes as
in the rest of the world. But one more phenomenon
must be pointed out : the Russian fortification work in
the country. This stupendous enterprise, directed against
an eventual Swedish invasion or a German landing,
consisted both in the surrounding of the most important

cities by belts of forts, blasted into the mountains, by-
lines of trenches and barbed wire defences, as well as
in the building of lines of defence virtually throughout
the whole of the country. How much work these
fortifications have cost is best seen from the observations
of an officer of the German general staff on the defences
round Helsingfors. He says that these fortifications
surpassed everything German soldiers had seen during
the world-war, as well Liege as Verdun, as well Kovno
as Warsaw, nay, even the mountain fortresses in the
Italian Alps. These huge positions were built by Finnish
labourers under Russian command. Enormous crowds of
working-men overran the parts where the work was carried
on, the pay was good, discipline there was none, the claims
made on individual effort were the least possible.
Innumerable were the anecdotes related about bribes,
cheating, faked pay-bills, etc., in connection with this
work. But one melancholy result they had. The
labourers became corrupted, and were thought to
fraternise with the Russian soldiers. A friendship was
struck up between the worst elements within each group,
and the compact was soon sealed by pillage, theft, robbery
and murder, all in concert. The tracts where the fortifica-
tion-work had been carried on became the worst haunts
of Finno-Russian bands of ruffians in the winter of 1917-
1918, and, from the ranks of those fortification workers
who had been led astray, the most licentious bands of
the reviving Red Guard were recruited.

During the war Finland's Lantdag had not been
permitted to assemble. But in the summer of 1916
the new general elections took place. These were not
able to create any very great interest, as it was impossible
to foresee under what conditions the assembly would
meet, and what problems would then be set before it.
Only the Labour Party succeeded as before in rallying

15

its constituents round the old familiar catchwords, and
thus it obtained the power in parliament it had so
eagerly coveted. The results of the election were 103
Labour representatives and 97 Bourgeois. The Labour
Party was now in absolute majority.

3. THE MARCH REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA AND
THE POSITION OF FINLAND.

When the Russian revolution broke out in March,
19 17, it was, of course, welcomed with the greatest joy
throughout all Finland, especially as the Government
elected by the Duma immediately took up the Finnish
question. The strongest feeling of deliverance and relief
was, however, in the beginning due to the fact that our
political prisoners in Russia might now be sure of libera-
tion. Since the autumn of 1915 the leader of the Lantdag,
Svinhufvud, had been in Siberia ; thither also the mayor
of Vasa city, Hasselblatt, and several others had been
deported ; the chief of the fire department was in the
interior of Russia, and, finally, a hundred Finnish patriots
had been confined for months in the prisons of St. Peters-
burg awaiting sentence of death. The thought of these
unhappy victims to the struggle for our right had lain
like a heavy load on the whole community ; it was to
them, therefore, that the first joyful thoughts from Finland
went out.

Nor was it long before information was received that
the new Russian Government had done everything in
its power, viz., once more restored to Finland all her
rights. Still at the same time it was found that the
representatives of our Labour Party had preferred the
demand that the Russian Provisional Government should
introduce into its manifesto promises of the social reforms
desired by the party ; but as these demands were at

i6

once rejected as contrary precisely to those fundamental
laws which would now again become valid, this bold
step did not attract any particular attention. Yet,
in the light of later events, this was the first sign that
the Labour Party did not shrink from resorting to any
foreign means of power, when it was a question of carrying
through their own private claims.

The situation soon became very complicated.

The drama played in Finland by the Russian troops
carried away by the intoxication of the revolution,
showed what an army in process of disintegration means,
and what an Asiatic barbarism the Russian army in
dissolution was able to develop. The first days of the
revolution in Helsingfors took the shape of a huge riot
of the soldiers and the mob. Detachments of naval
and land forces dashed about in the motor-cars of their
commanders, all with rifle or revolver in hand, with the
finger on the trigger, firing volleys of shot into the air
for joy, or shooting straight before them in order to
increase the din and noise caused by the furious speed.
They were hunting for the officers who had concealed
themselves. The latter were killed wherever they were
found, in their houses, in the street, or on staircases*
The fatal shot was fired almost without exception from
behind, in an unguarded moment when the victim was
ordered to come along to be submitted to examination^
or simply arrested without ceremony. The city was
entirely in the power of the Russian soldiers. They
had turned out the police and maintained " order "
themselves. Demonstration meetings and processions
were arranged. Machine-guns were pulled through the
streets, and fired off now in this place, now in that.
Anything like this Russo-Barbarian frenzy had never
yet been witnessed by the population ; whichever way
you cast your eye in the streets you saw only wild, armed

17

bands with the expression of madmen on their faces,
carrying revolvers in their hands and the swords of
murdered officers at their sides. These, then, were the
deliverers of Russia — and of Finland !

It was not possible to regard the riotous bands with
any immediate sympathy, even if one was obliged to
argue oneself into the belief that even their activity
had helped Finland to comparative liberty. It was a
Russian mob which was presented to one's sight ; frenzied,
brutal, ignorant masses that took the life of their superiors
with impunity. And the aversion to these masses grew
when it was understood that they by no means intended
to abolish the Russian command in Finland. In place
of the Russian gendarmery came a " Counter Espionage
Department for the Defence of Popular Liberty," which
took over all the papers of the gendarmery from the time
of war. The liberated Finnish prisoners in St. Petersburg
were obliged to fly quickly across the frontier to Sweden,
the new Russian military authorites — all sorts of boards
and committees — continued to arrest Finnish citizens
and arrange house searches. Finland was still ruled
by the Russian military garrisoned there, though now
no longer by the officers but by the soldiers.

The Labour Party did not, however, entertain any
doubts. Bound by its traditions to the Russian revolu-
tionary movement, it now cast itself head foremost into
the hubbub caused by this latter in Finland. The large
demonstration processions of the first weeks were Finno-
Russian, the Labour press at once adopted the whole
of the wild Russian phraseology, and the lively fraternising
started during the fortification-work between the Russian
soldiers and Finnish working-men was now complete.

It is a matter of course that, in the undisciplined
masses which constituted the Russian troops, the most
extreme elements would take the leadership ; the murdering

i8

of officers was an excellent introduction. It is equally
natural that among the Finnish masses of labourers that
were expressly invited by the faction-leaders to fraternise
wdth the Russians, the most violent individuals were in
the liveliest co-operation with the Russian leaders. These
latter were for the most part marines recruited in the
first instance among the crews of the big ironclads which
had been lying in the ports during the whole of the war,
and the hands of which had therefore had plenty of time
to develop into full-fledged Maximalists, Bolsheviks —
nay, into anything and everything but efficient labourers
and firm characters.

In Finland pure mob-rule developed with unexpected
swiftness. Besides, the Russian soldiers' own conduct,
a particularly extensive general pardon granted in con-
sequence of the revolution, by which a great number
of criminals were liberated, was conducive to this. But
first and foremost the tactics of the Labour Party. As
before mentioned, it had gained a majority at the elections
in the summer of 1916, and when now the Single-Chamber
assembled, Kullervo Manner, later of such melancholy
fame, became its leader, and since then the equally
notorious Oskari Tokoi became president of the parlia-
mentary Government which was elected.

One would have thought that the Labour Party ought
to have been satisfied with a majority both in Parliament
and Government, and should now have entered upon a
sober and dignified policy. But this was by no means
the case. The first declaration of Mr. Tokoi's Government
was certainly applauded in all circles, for in this he stated
plainly and unreservedly how much Finland had hoped
for the defeat of Russia in the war, and with what
confidence we now looked forward to a freer and happier
future for the country. But even if the Labour Party
thus observed a certain dignity in its most official conduct,

WJ

m

19

it still continued its agitation policy against the bourgeoisie
with unwearied zeal. Strikes broke out one after the
Other. Their purpose was to introduce the eight-hour
working-day. This demand was quickly acceded to in
several industries, but new causes for strikes were con-
tinually found. The worst confusion was brought about
In the agricultural world. During the busiest seed-time
strike upon strike was organised among the farm hands.
They too demanded an eight-hour working-day, a claim
which it would be most difficult to give general sanction
to within this sphere of activity. A lot of the strikes
were started out of pure spitefulness. It was dissatis-
faction with a foreman and the demand that he should
be discharged, or there was something the matter with
the food or the houses ; often a strike was proclaimed
against the food crisis. The farm hands refused to
belabour the soil and sow, thinking by this refusal to
enforce bigger rations.

The strikes often assumed a violent character. The
strikers prevented the people on the farms from milking
or feeding the cows. The farmers were locked up and
tin itened with death if they did not agree to the demands
of the " people," the dairies were closed by force, and
there were conflicts, with stone-throwing, stabbing and
•shooting with revolvers.

The leaders of the Labour Party might, of course,
have done much to stop this movement which, for every
week that passed, assumed more plainly the character
of arbitrariness and violence. But they did not. The
reasons for this were many. In part they were not able,
and in part they were not willing to interfere with the
violent agitation of the masses. This would have demanded
•co-operation with the bourgeoisie, and such co-operation
was not desired. It would have demanded the establish-
ed of an active native police force — a Government

B 2

20

police by preference — whereas now it was the express
policy of the Labour Party to destroy the police
entirely. The police force, which had been ousted by the
Russian soldiers at the very beginning of the revolution,
never came into being again. The " people " felt no
confidence in this institution, and in its stead local
corps for the maintenance of order were established —
a " militia/ ' the men of which were to belong to the
Labour Party. The struggle to get the police authority
| of the country entirely into its own hands was so ener-
getically carried on by the Labour Party, and was so
successful, that later on in the year the militia in many
cases gave the signal for all sorts of disturbances by
striking first. Already in the course of the summer the
police force of Helsingfors struck, and this act was
of course illustrated by a whole series of offences, from
the picking of pockets to murder, as was very natural
in a city of 200,000 inhabitants which was without any
real police, and was besides the haunt of huge masses
of undisciplined Russian soldiers.

In the meanwhile the many strikes and the general
disturbance had another effect which was also of advan-
tage to the Labour Party. They scared the bourgeoisie.
This latter now got to know what "■ the power of the
people " meant ; it realised that the proletariat no
longer begged and prayed, but claimed and demanded.
Never, I suppose, has the working-man, but especially
the rough, felt so puffed up with power as in the year
1917 in Finland ; never, I suppose, has the bourgeois
had so strong a feeling as then that he was only tolerated
and that his part was only silence and acquiescence.
It was felt in the streets and in tram-cars — everywhere
where people of different classes came together — that
Finland had got a ruler, that the working-men with tho-
assistance of the Russian soldiers had come to feel that

21

their " class " was the one that ruled the country. A
typical illustration of this feeling was a resolution, carried
at a meeting of labourers at Tornea, in which the upper class
were commanded to give up wearing starched collars and
cuffs " so that they could get to look like other people."

Difficult as were the exterior and interior conditions
of the country, an increased mob-rule could only cause
still greater confusion, trouble and disaster. The Lantdag
was at work and treated a great number of Bills, but
the Labour Party brooked no opposition, would not hear
of the least modification or amendment of the Bills once
proposed by it. The debates were one long series of
violent oratorical sallies against the bourgeoisie, however
willing, and more than willing, these latter in fact were
to fix by legislation the length of the working-day within
the various industries, to reform the municipal legislation,
and to accelerate the emancipation of the cottagers —
the three chief claims of the Labour Party. But the
objective of the party was power. It had only a narrow
majority in the Lantdag ; it therefore behoved it to fan
the hatred against the " upper class " to a still greater
flame. The party did not feel how many enemies it raised
up against itself in this way. The farmers were resentful
on account of the agricultural strikes, and even the older
and more sober working-men began to entertain doubts
of the development their party was taking. For it was
quite plain that an element of pure ruffianism was coming
more and more into the foreground.

However disquieting the situation was in the interior,
it was not given all the attention it might have deserved,
for another and more important question filled the minds
of all — the old question of the relations with Russia.
The impotence of the great empire began to show more
and more plainly. All the various foreign nationalities
within the frontiers of the empire sought to emancipate

22

themselves, and the possibility of an independent Finland
came nearer and nearer. It was, of course, difficult to
maintain a uniform and firm line of policy in this question,,
so vague was the perspective, so varying the Russian
drama. But the trend of things was given ; the object
must be to get as far as possible from the Russian muddle.

Only the Labour Party vacillated. It was fascinated
by the great revolution and drawn towards it as the moth
towards the flame. " I believe I am expressing correctly
the inmost thought of the whole Finnish proletariat,"
wrote one of the leaders of the Party on the 4th May,
" when I say that the Finnish democracy wishes to fight
side by side with the Russian democracy for the most
exalted ideals of humanity, and when I say that its will
is that Finland may for ever constitute an internally
autonomic part of the great free Russia's democracy.' '

But such declarations were as yet out of place. At a
party congress in June the Labour Party, without such far-
reaching suggestions, resolved that " Finland's people shall
be emancipated from State dependency and tutelage."

For as yet the " bourgeoisie " were in power in
Russia. On the 3rd July a representative of the Finnish
Labour Party expressly declares that this is the meaning
of the efforts for independence made by the Finnish
proletariat. He says, in a memorial to the great Working-
men's and Soldiers' Council at St. Petersburg : " Hitherto
we have been obliged to fight on two fronts — against our
own bourgeoisie, and against the Russian Government. If
our class war is to be successful, if we are to be able to gather
all our strength on one front, against our own bourgeoisie,,
we need Independence, for which Finland is already ripe."

There was yet another reason why the Labour Party
entered the independence of Finland as an item in its
programme. The hatred against Russia was so vivid in
all sections of the population that overt friendship with

23

Russia might have become fatal. A radical striving for
independence would, however, have every condition for
strengthening the power of the party. This calculation
certainly proved right. In the course of the summer
the Labour Party got help in the Chamber from a few
bourgeoisie representatives when, on the strength of a
resolution sanctioned by the Russian Working-men's and
Soldiers' Congress, it wanted to push through Finland's
independence in a hurry, together with a number of
radical reforms coupled with it. This took place at a
moment when it was believed that the downfall of the
Russian Provisional Government was pending. But the
Government survived the Bolshevik assault and dissolved
the Lantdag. Writs were issued for new elections for
the ist October. After the dissolution came a series of
parliamentary conflicts, which it would take too long to
detail here. It need only be stated that the solution of
the problem of Finland's independence as sanctioned by
the Labour Party, presupposed a continued connection
with Russia, whose Government alone had the right of
deciding all external and military matters.

The strikes and disturbances continued throughout
the summer, and as the butt of them were chosen by
preference the representatives of the townships and the
country communities. Of these latter was demanded a
rise in salaries, or extra work, in order to mitigate distress,
etc., and to carry through these claims, the premises
where the representatives were assembled were besieged,
and the representatives prevented from leaving them,
until the claim was granted. At Abo the representatives
were beleaguered for a day and a half ; in Helsingfors
the whole affair lasted only a few hours ; at Helsinge it
looked as if there was going to be black trouble. The
mob called in the aid of the Russian military when a
siege of a day and a night had brought no result, and the

24

soldiers threatened instantly to set fire to the meeting-
house, which was built of wood, if the representatives
did not at once comply with the " People's " wish. As
the soldiers were evidently in good earnest, the majority
of the representatives decided to grant the increase in pay
which was the object of the whole affair.

Events of this kind encouraged provisions for the
maintenance of order. The successors of the police — the
militia of the Labour Party — had proved incapable of
doing anything. To this trouble was added a number
of cares for the future. A German invasion in Finland
was not excluded. At least it might be hoped that the
Russian troops would evacuate Finland after an eventual
separate peace. In both cases a removal of the Russian
troops might then be thought of, and what this meant
was seen from the communications about the retreat in
Galicia after Kerenski's unsuccessful offensive in July*
The whole population of Finland knew that the troops
of Russian soldiers it saw in its villages might at any
moment be changed into hordes of wild animals, just
like those which had looted and burnt, committed murder
and outrage in Tarnopol and other cities, and it did not
wish to suffer such a fate without at least making some
attempt at resistance.

Taking all this into account — the already prevailing
anarchy, the mob-rule with its continual acts of violence,
and the fear of possible Russian massacres, it was both
reasonable and necessary to form protection corps of
volunteers for the defence of the life and property of
the population. It was just as natural that there should
be a wish to recruit these corps from all sections of society
and all parties. In many parts the organisation was
begun in perfect harmony between the " Socialists "
and " Bourgeois." Anyone would be able to see that
the matter was urgent and of importance to everybody.

25

In the rules and regulations for the Protective Corps was
contained the clause that they were only to turn out
at the orders of the lawful police. The Government,
from which the representatives of the Labour Party
had withdrawn after the dissolution of the Lantdag,
established its police-school in the country near the town
of Borga, where a mounted troop of 200 men was trained
to be ready to be sent out in an emergency to stop
revolts in any part of the country. The institution of
protective corps was undisguisedly supported by a couple
of the provincial papers of the Labour Press. Yet the
whole movement was never very extensive. The Pro-
tective Corps hardly felt equal to their great task,
especially as a great shortage of arms was felt. For many
years the import of arms to Finland had been prohibited,
therefore there was only a small store of army rifles
and a few more revolvers in the possession of the Corps.
The 200 pupils in the police-school in November owned
twelve rifles, the Protective Corps at Helsingfors in
January, 1918, at the outbreak of the insurrection,
were in possession of 100. And in the worst case the
foe would be a Russian army corps fully provided with
artillery and much else, besides the whole of the Russian
Baltic fleet. The prospect was not a bright one.

In the meanwhile the various Protective Corps had
appeared here and there, had prevented a robbery of
butter destined for the hospitals, captured eighteen
scoundrels at Helsinge, etc. This was the signal for
the Socialists not only to withdraw from all co-operation,
>ut also to declare war against the Protective Corps.
In the chief organ of the Labour Press, " Ty6mies "
(the Working-man), the leading article for the 28th
August bore the following title : " The Civic Guard Ready
to Attack the Working-man. An Organisation embracing
the Whole of the Country is Started."

26

The article asserts quite coolly that the bourgeoisie
have armed themselves to " mutilate the starving
proletariat.' ' " There is no intention of checking the
marauding policy of the war ruffians, but in support of
it citizens are armed against the desperate working-men
in order to pour out the blood of brethren." This, of
course, was sheer conscious untruth. What was the
purpose of the Protective Corps will appear from what has
been stated above. The want of an efficient police force
also shov/ed itself in the rationing of food, the producers
in the country were very unwilling to send their products
to the towns for the express reason that they feared they
would be seized without ceremony by the mob. Here,
then, was another task for the Protective Corps. But
the campaign against them was continued in the Labour
Press. A few more extracts will give an idea of the tone.
On the 25th September " Tyomies," under the title ;
" Bourgeois* Sanguinary Guards. They Are Being
Trained and Armed Quickly. Their Activity is Directed
against the Working-men," writes amongst other things
as follows : "It is the intention of the upper classes
to commit sanguinary deeds, and to crush the working-
men's organisations by force of arms. Is there any
difference between Bobrikoff's gendarme rule and this
occupation ? By no means. These men of the Pro-
tective Corps go almost further. They wander about
with the finger on the trigger, and are ready to snap
the life out of anyone who is dressed in the labourer's
jacket." " The bourgeois themselves have let fall
the veil. Their blood-dripping measures are revealed
to the sight of the honest fellow-citizen, their armed,
thousand-headed guards and mounted troops. The
bourgeois are bringing up ignorant men to wholesale
slaughter of their own fellow citizens. They have
already emptied the arsenals of our country, and are

27

directing the muzzles of their guns against their own
countrymen, against the hearts of the working-men.
The prosperous open their purses and pay tribute of blood
in order to protect their class interests."

And all this because eighteen malefactors have been
arrested at Helsinge who have held the province in terror
for weeks on end, and among which there was one assassin !

The police-school meets with a similar treatment.
It says about it : "In Finland we have now over ioo
Jack the Rippers. The bourgeois have made a mathe-
matically correct calculation, for the result will be exactly
the same whether you reduce the number of stomachs or
increase the bread rations."

Whence all this ? In part the articles may be
accounted for as weapons in the electioneering campaign
which was the forerunner of the new Lantdag elections.
But the reason why the Labour Party entered the lists in
defence of the misdeeds of the mob and the more and more
violent anarchy in the country lay deeper. The power
of the Bolshevik Party in Russia was growing, and with
this party, among whose most eager adherents were
the troops garrisoned in Finland and the crews of the
Baltic fleet, the Finnish Labour Party was in lively
connection. This party was to bring about the great
social revolution throughout the world, one fine day it
would take all power into its hands, and the Finnish
" comrades " wished to take a share in this. They
knew quite well that all the other parties in Finland
would oppose a Finno-Russian proletariat dictatorship,
they knew that the Protective Corps would resist such
attempts to force Finland into the Russian chaos. There-
fore they talked in this high strain, therefore Finland's
respectable citizens were made to appear as bloodthirsty
wild beasts, therefore the food crisis was presented as
the outcome of their wish to starve " the labouring

28

people/' and therefore all disturbing elements, all robbers
and incendiaries, were welcome for the support of the
approaching revolution. By painting the citizens as
Russian bureaucrats and oppressors of the purest water
the end was gained, the Russian military gang and the
Finnish labourers presented a common front against the
upper class. The situation became clearer, the somer-
sault had come off successfully, the Finnish patriots,
who with their life and liberty had defended their country
against Russian oppression, who had greeted the Russian
revolution with rejoicings, had now been made into
" black counter-revolutionists," " the executioners of
the people," worse than Russian agents of the gendarmery.
The situation was ripe for the resurrection of the Red
Guard to fight against the Protective Corps.

The Russians understood the intention to act. In
October a representative of the Russian Working-men's
and Soldiers' Council in Finland says at a Congress of
Councillors in St. Petersburg : " Finland stands on the
threshold of civil war, Finland's bourgeoisie is armed,
and on the point of assaulting the Finnish proletariat.
It is the duty of the council to disarm Finland's bourgeoisie
and hand over the weapons to Finland's proletariat."

In the course of the summer the first corps of the Red
Guard was formed. In October an appeal was issued
from the leaders of the Labour Party to form such corps
all over the country.

4. OCCURRENCES OF THE AUTUMN AND
WINTER.

October.

The elections for the new Lantdag took place on the

1st October. The independence of Finland was included

in the programme of all parties, but in reality a trial of

strength was imminent between the " Bourgeois " and

29

the " Socialists," the Social-Democratic Party was still
the official name of the Labour Party. This party had
appeared as the protector of the mob and the friend of
the Russian soldiers. It must now be the object of the
country to choose between being dragged into the Russian
revolution whithersoever this would tend, or resolutely
avoiding it, taking its fate into its own hands and re-
establishing order. Fortunately, it was seen that the
infection from the Russian revolution had not impreg-
nated the whole people. The Labour Party lost its
majority. It returned 92 representatives against 108
bourgeois.

This was a hard blow to the " Socialists." They had
gone to the poll with the firm assurance of victory.
The many successful strikes, by which wages had been
screwed up considerably, had increased the number of
the organised labourers almost tenfold, and these were
safe votes. Besides this, it was reckoned that the chances
for an extreme radicalism were now, in the midst of the
world-war and the Russian revolution, better than they
had ever been. Only for this reason did the Socialists
take part in the elections at all. The Labour Party had
not acknowledged the dissolution of the Lantdag, and
announced that the new elections were " illegal." They
took part in them, however, with the assumption that for
the new Lantdag " it could not be claimed that it should
in every respect conform to the before-existing legal
rules," as it said in the party's call to the poll — but that
in opposition to the usual rules of procedure of the
Lantdag, it had the right to sanction fundamental laws
and taxation acts by simple majority, and also to act
as a free constituent assembly.

So that was it. The people elected a Lantdag, but
when it was well elected, and had got its Socialistic
majority, it would reveal itself as a constituent assembly !

30

By this the power would be placed in the hands of the
Labour Party in a way that was as simple as it was
shrewd. But it proved a miscalculation. The party
therefore changed tactics, and kept very scrupulously
to the usual procedure of the Lantdag, in order to bring
the influence of their great minority to bear as much
as possible.

x\s soon as their defeat in the elections had become
known, the Labour Party began to organise corps of the
Red Guard in good earnest. Before they had been
mutually independent organisations, now they were to
be transformed into a real army. The purpose of this was
first stated to be self-defence against the butcher-corps,
i.e., the Protective Corps, but soon the real, purely
revolutionary, intention is allowed to show through,
though only obscurely.

In a procalamation issued on the 20th October the
leaders of Finland's Collective Trades Unions say as follows :
*' As the bourgeoisie is now feverishly arming itself
against the labourers in order to stifle their most important
endeavours for reform, the leaders are of opinion that in
self-defence, and to provide against all contingencies,
the labourers should immediately raise corps of Guards
all over the country." But already on the 16th October
the former chief of the Government, Mr. Tokoi, had

o

pointed out in a speech at Abo that the defeat at the
elections need not be of decisive importance as " the
labourers had other means of power besides the ballot to
bring home their claims. It was necessary to stand
firm, and fight for the victory of the revolution when the
right moment had come."

On the 31st October the party council of the Social-
Democratic Party calls upon those corps of the Guard
that are not yet fully equipped to " get ready as quickly
as possible, and collect all the forces of the working-men

3i

in order to provide against every contingency, for great
events may lie in wait for us." On the next day the
" Leading Committee of the Labour Guards Corps "
makes the following announcement : " Great events may
call upon us before we expect it, and then the Labourers'
Guards Corps must be ready to accomplish their task
so that we can be on a level with circumstances."

This is an invitation to revolution. Revolution
against what ? The word was meaningless, as in reality
all the claims for reform, preferred by the Labour Party,
had already found, or were on their way to finding, a
solution in the Lantdag. But something else was on the
books. The most democratic of all election acts had
pronounced its sentence, and it went against the Labour
Party. It was therefore necessary to bring off a coup by
which the party could get into power again in spite of
tlni plainly manifested will of the people. The ballot
was no good any longer, the " other means of power "
were now looked to with confidence. These, however,
were for the time being in the hands of a band of men
who were the country's enemies, if anyone was, for they
were the rifles of the licentious bands of Russian soldiers.
With these it was intended to fight and to cow the people
in its own country. That, however, is not revolution, it
is treason. And the reason for entering into this mad
game ? Lust of power together with the fascinating
attraction of events in Russia. Besides this, the Labour
>arty had now wrought up its own adherents to such a
pitch that they obstinately demanded victory, power,
and the complete subjection of the " bourgeoisie."
A journal belonging to the staff of the Red Guard at
"ammerfors shows how the organisation of the corps was
irried out. At a meeting on the 6th October, a com-
mittee was elected for the securing of weapons from the
Russian soldiers. Simultaneously majors were appointed.

32

ioth October. The staff determine that the Guard
shall be recruited in accordance with the law of conscription.
In North Tavastland are placed eleven battalions of men
between twenty-one and forty years. The training to
begin immediately.

16th October. Conscription is extended to the ages
from eighteen to twenty-one. A special armed troop is
formed of completely trustworthy, capable men. Railway
men offer to form own battalion. An espionage depart-
ment is formed. Maps are provided.

17th October. Four interpreters (for co-operation
with the Russians) are appointed. An offer from the
Russian soldiers of 500 rifles, at 50 Finnish marks apiece
(their real value was from 600 to 800 marks), and 125, 000
cartridges, is received and at once closed with. It is
decided to procure revolvers.

In this way it was intended to protect the " poor
starving working-men " against the " bloodthirsty citi-
zens." A few weeks later it was to appear for what
purpose the Russian rifles had actually been procured.

November.

On the 1st November the new Lantdag assembled
at Helsingfors. Its most important problem was pro-
visionally, in some way or other, to adjust the complicated
relations with Russia. The discussion relating to this
question was carried on partly between the party-groups
and partly between these and the representative of the
Provisional Government in Finland, Governor-General
Nekrasov. But while awaiting the solemn opening of
the session it was possible to follow in the press how the
situation was developing round about in the country
The notices thereof in a certain way throw light upon
the circumstances.

On the 1st November the papers bring the following

33

communications : Six Russian soldiers have searched an
office in Helsingfors, arrested two persons and put them
in prison. Cause : a secret — and false — denouncement
for having stored weapons. — At Viborg, Cossacks there
garrisoned have taken offence at a newspaper notice,
prevented the paper from appearing, threatened to arrest
and flog the editors. — A drunken marine soldier has
thrown paving-stones through the windows of a tram-car
in Helsingfors. — A Russian sentry has shot a young Finn
who had not succeeded in stopping his runaway horse in
time. — Russian soldiers have arrested two persons in a
villa suburb of Helsingfors — cause unknown.

2nd November. Drunken soldiers make a scene at
Tammerfors station which delays the train two hours. —

"wenty soldiers force their way into the editorial offices
the Kasko Tidning and make a search of the house.

'ause : a woman has said to a soldier that there were
weapons in the yard. The search was without results.
— A young girl has been assaulted by two soldiers. —

o

Count Armfelt at Aminnegard has been visited by seven
armed marine soldiers who arrived in a motor-car, over-
powered a sentry-post and tried to force their way into
the main building to " murder and rob," as they said
themselves. They, however, retired when they saw that
the house was guarded.— At a factory in the up-country
the parish constable and two policemen come to fetch a
suspected individual for examination. This excites the
displeasure of the working-men, who arrest the parish
constable and the policemen. They are ordered not to

low themselves on the premises of the factory in future.

-The council of soldiers at Viborg forbids the appearance
)f the paper which has excited its displeasure " while the
war lasts " and threatens violence. — Finland's Procurator

Idresses a communication to the Governor-General

ith the request that the Russian military, totally

c

34

undisciplined as it is, may be withdrawn from the
country.

3rd November. Before the lower court at Abo a case
is proceeding against six persons arrested for the theft of
butter. Suddenly 50 Russian marine soldiers, armed with
rifles with fixed bayonets, force their way in and surround
both judge and prisoners. Two sailors take their stand
on either side of the prosecutor and direct their revolvers
against him. Then the court is ordered with threats of
revolvers and rifles to release the prisoners. As the
bench remain silent, the soldiers themselves release the
prisoners, seize all the papers of the court, and take their
departure with the six happy thieves. — Two soldiers force
their way into a shop, knock down the shop-girl and rob
the till. — A board-school teacher and his wife are fired
at without cause as they are walking along a country
road. They succeed in concealing themselves in a wood.
The pursuing soldiers fire about forty shots at them. —
A gentleman is attacked one night in the heart of
Helsingfors by two marine soldiers, they catch hold of
his head from behind and stab him in the chest. A book
he carries in his pocket saves him.

The days from the 4th to the 7th November furnish
the following illustrations : A fight in a dancing-saloon
with stabbing and revolver shooting. Russian soldiers
seize without ceremony 300 kgs. of tin ; when the owner
appears, the soldiers try to arrest him ; he escapes into a
house, is fired at, returns the fire ; the house is surrounded,
the man is seized, bound, and taken to the Russian
barracks. — A drunken soldier fires several shots through
a window, the bullets hit the wall just above the bed of
a sleeping child. After that the man shoots down the
streets and breaks some windows. Seven house-searches
without results are made by Russian soldiers. — Soldiers
commit burglary in a school and a factory. — In the

35

middle of the day a gentleman, who has drawn a consider-
able sum of money in a bank, is assaulted by three Russian
marine soldiers in the heart of Helsingfors. They drag
the man into a gateway, strike him till he loses conscious-
ness, and rob him. — A woman of the streets has been
arrested for theft. Russian soldiers demand her release
or threaten to release her by force. — The Government, who
had made energetic attempts to re-establish the highly
necessary permanent police, is informed by a deputation
of Russian soldiers that the military garrisoned at
Helsingfors intends to prevent any such attempt by force
of arms. — From an account published in a Russian paper
of a soldiers' meeting it appears that the soldiers had
made journeys to Russia to procure arms for the Finnish
labourers.

The situation was not agreeable. Behind the searches
and arrests of the Russian soldiers stood the Labour Party,
which was not ready itself to come into the foreground,
and, for the time being, contented itself with keeping
the hated " citizens " in continual terror through all
these military assaults. This was not, however, under-
stood by the bourgeoisie as yet. They thought that the
proceedings of the Russians were caused by an exaggerated
and mad fear of " German agents " ; that the soldiers
feared a German advance against St. Petersburg, " the
heart of the re volution,' ' and therefore ravaged the land
as they did. Too great a faith in their own people pre-
vented the Finns from seeing facts as they were, the
largest political party in the country joining the demora-
lised bands of Russian soldiers for purposes of treason.

A speaking proof of this good faith on the one hand,
and the treachery of the Labour Party on the other hand,
is found in the before-mentioned journal containing
reports of the meetings of the Red Guard staff at Tammer-
fors. On the 6th November the municipal council

c 2

36

requests the Red Guard to send some representatives to
confer with the Protective Corps with a view to co-
operation. This request is refused. On the 8th November
there is a fresh communication from the municipal
council. Information has been received from Estland
giving a terrible description of the ravages of the Russian
soldiers there. The municipal council therefore again
requests the Red Guard to send some representatives to
confer with the Protective Corps, in order that they may
act in concert if the Russian military should begin to
harry Finland as cruelly as Estland. According to the
report the answer of the staff is to the effect that disturb-
ances from the side of the Russians are not to be feared,
and that all grounds are wanting for co-operation between
the bourgeois and the working-men. At the same time
the staff send two representatives and an interpreter to a
Russian soldiers' meeting which " is dealing with the
question of procuring arms for us." The result is good.
They get their weapons. It must be noted that the
staff is under the leadership of the Labour Party, and
that the latter, as it appears from several places in the
report, was also in direct negotiation with the Russians
about the procuring of weapons.

This little incident gives a good idea of the situation.
As yet the upper classes had such optimistic notions
about the Red Guard of the Labour Party that they
believed them ready to defend the country if it became
necessary. But these latter were in reality already
taken up by an energetic revolutionary co-operation with
the Russians, and were arming themselves together with
them against their own countrymen — at the same time
assuring the latter that no danger threatened.

One more act of violence was committed during the
first days of November, and one that attracted special
attention, partly because it cost several people their

37

lives, and partly because it showed how exceedingly
difficult the task of the Protective Corps practically
was. On the 6th November, about fifty armed Russian
marine soldiers arrived by train and motor-car in the
iibourhood of the estate of Mommila in Tavastland.
At Mommila were staying some friends and relatives of
the owner, the Landbrugsraad Kordelin — eleven ladies and
eleven gentlemen. When they were warned by telephone
of the sudden concentration of military in the neighbour-
hood, they applied to the nearest town for a guard.
Six men were sent. The next morning the soldiers
marched into Mommila, cut the telephone wires, took the
guard captive, and made an energetic search throughout
the house. Four of five of the sailors proved to be Finns
in uniform, a couple of these were bad characters from
the neighbourhood. During the search gold watches,
bracelets, rings, bangles, garments, etc., disappeared.
The sailors made themselves at home at the breakfast-
table and let the hungry visitors see how much they
enjoyed the meal intended for them. As a reason for
this enforced hospitality, now one reason, now another,
was given. The search was for corn, arms, German
spies, all according to circumstances. When the search
was ended, all the eleven gentlemen were arrested, in
order, as it was said, to be taken to Helsingfors. In the
meanwhile the news of the proceedings of the soldiers
had spread, and from the neighbouring town, Lahti,
thirty men of the Protective Corps proceeded to Mommila
to find out what was actually going on. On the high road,
some kilometres from the estate, the thirty men met a
motor-car packed full of armed sailors, and behind it
came the whole bevy of prisoners in various vehicles
guarded by sailors. The leader of the Protective troop
signalled to the motor-car to stop, which it did. On
his asking what the soldiers were up to, they answered

38

by giving fire. After that there was brisk firing which
lasted for about forty minutes. The prisoners of the
Russians ran off towards the wood, but two of them, the
Landbrugsraad, Mr. Kordelin, and the manager of a
large factory, a civil engineer, Mr. Pettersson, were
immediately shot down by their guards before they had
made the least attempt to run away. The shots were
fired by a sailor sitting behind them in the cart, evidently
a Finn in disguise. A valuable ring worn by Kordelin
disappeared and was found again a few months after in
the possession of a Russian infantryman who was offering
it for sale. In the fight two members of the Protective
Corps were killed, a photographer and a verderer, while
two sailors were killed and several wounded. The
Russians fled in different directions, some of them were
captured later on after more or less violent conflicts, but
they were of course liberated as soon as they were handed
over to the military authorities. The Protective Corps of
Helsingfors now marched out, but at the same time the
Russian military took alarm. They took possession of
the important railway junction Riihimaki, in their
nervousness fired at a train with exchanged German
invalided prisoners, and sent 400 men with rifles and
machine guns to Mommila. In order to avoid bigger
fights the Protective Corps of Helsingfors retreated.

The murdered owner of Mommila was a very wealthy
man. He had made a will by which the whole of his
fortune, amounting to more than forty million marks,
was left to all sorts of associations and institutions for
the education of the people.

Among the bourgeoisie it was believed that the events
at Mommila would open the eyes of the labourers and
show them the necessity for concord and united action
against the Russian outrages and the native ruffianism.
All bourgeois papers expressed the hope that the

39

Protective Corps, as well as all the corps of the Red Guard,
would now unite and combine to guard the peace and
lawful order of the country.

There was all the more reason for nourishing such
hopes as Finland had, just at this time, by the force of
circumstances, been practically detached from Russia.
On the 7th November the Bolshevik insurrection had
broken loose in Russia and the Provisional Government
had been overthrown. Russia was now without govern-
ment, for the right to the executive power was not
acknowledged by anyone but the party's own members,
and so much was plain that the power vested in the
Russian Emperor, in his quality of Grand Duke of
Finland, could not without ceremony pass over to a
Russian party committee which had usurped the power.
Finland must now decide her own fate.

The moment was great and historical. The collapse
of Russia had now progressed so far that Finland as a
detached whole could choose her own way and show that
she was really a nation with Western culture, capable of
holding her own among the States of Europe. But the
Labour Party would not hear of anything of the sort.
In accordance with the old form of government the
Lantdag was to choose a ruler for the country already
on the 8th November. But, on account of the split among
the factions, the presidency of the Lantdag was of opinion
that there were grounds for proposing an administration
committee of three persons. The Labour Party moved a
counter-proposal containing the programme of an entire
social revolution, and demanding amongst other things
that the law — the so-called Power Law — which had been
the cause of the dissolution of the former Lantdag should
now be confirmed. This party thus considered it adequate
— as proposed in this law — to continue to commit all
foreign and military affairs to the Russian Government

40

which at the moment did not exist. After a great many
difficulties the question was decided to the effect that
the Lantdag itself took over the Higher Power in Fin-
land.

In the meanwhile the Labour Party found that the
moment had now come to bring into play those
"unparliamentary means of power " they had so often
threatened to employ. On the 13th November at twelve
midnight they proclaimed a general strike throughout
the country, and their first act was to take possession
of all the printing offices of the bourgeoisie papers, so
that the morning papers could not appear on the 14th.
The Red Guard had now come into action.

What was the reason for this sudden vigorous measure
just at this time ? The demands preferred by the party
in the strike proclamation did not make the matter
clearer. They consisted in a radical regulation of the
food question, and the struggle against unemployment
on the lines laid down by the Labour Party ; the con-
firmation of the " Power Law," of the law of the eight-
hour working-day, and of the proposed extremely radical
municipal law ; secure guarantees for an old-age pension
scheme, for an effective taxation of large incomes and
war profits, for the emancipation of cottagers, and the
extension of the franchise to persons of the age of twenty ;
the convening of a constituent assembly.

It is not easy to see how a general strike would be
able to act beneficially with regard, e.g., to the providing
of food, or do away with unemployment, or why the
" Power Law," with its highly unsatisfactory solution of
the problem of Finland's relations with Russia, was now
so desirable. On the whole there was every possible
reason for suspecting that the end and purpose of the
strike was something very different from what the
proclamation stated, and that this latter was only a

41

mere misleading sign. This was seen in the first instance
from the fact that the strike did not end when the
Lantdag passed the two Bills it was possible to pass —
the eight-hour working-day and the municipal law — but
not until a couple of days after, though none of the
many other claims had been carried through. Further-
more, the real purpose might be inferred from the fact
that the strike leadership was in the hands of a committee
bearing the name of the" Revolutionary Central Council"
— so it was intended to start a revolution. And last but not
least, in the declaration which ended the strike, was
found a passage showing that power was the ultimate
object. " Finland's bourgeoisie is certainly not yet on
its knees before the working-class," it says. And as a
consolation: "The general strike has ended, but the
revolution persists."

A couple of documents now accessible, from the days
before the outbreak of the strike, give us another glimpse
into its real purpose. On the 9th November a committee
elected by the Social-Democratic Municipal Organisation

o

meets at Abo, the purpose of which is "to lead the
approaching strike " (in the journal is added above the
line: " or revolution "). At the meeting two persons are
elected who, together with an interpreter, are to take
part in the Russian executive committee's and the
Bolshevik committee's meetings now sitting, in order
to deliberate on the expediency of united action during
the approaching revolution. The meeting is adjourned in
order to await the return of the deputation, and is
continued again at twelve midnight. Two representatives
of the executive committee of the Russians are now
present. The report of the meeting runs as follows :
' The Russian comrades gave an account of their plans ;
we then explained the situation from our point of view.
We agreed that the beginning of the fight should be

42

signalled by three gunshots (first one and then two
quickly after one another) . At the same time the Russians
stated that they had no objection to our people taking
the Hotel Phoenix for headquarters, with the exception
of the rooms already occupied by the Russian Soldiers'
Committee. We informed the Russians that before
morning we would submit a strategical plan for the
taking of the city. This plan is later submitted to the
Russians."

At the meeting next day the " strategical plan " is
discussed, with a few small amendments it is carried,
and then sent on to the Russian soldiers. At the same
time it is determined that " the leading persons and
other such " of the bourgeoisie — a special list is found —
are to be arrested immediately on the outbreak of the
revolution, and that all " central places " must be
taken.

Also in Tammerfors the strike is prepared after joint
deliberation with the Russians. The work is thus dis-
tributed that the Russian soldiers are to make all searches
after weapons and take possession of the telegraph,
while the Finnish Red Guard does the rest.

It is thus plainly seen that the real purpose of the
November strike was to carry out the " revolution,"
for which the signal had been given already before, and
none other. Now the time had come. The Bolsheviks
had taken over the Government in Russia ; now they
wanted to do the same in Finland. The Finnish Labour
Party was allowed to hang on to the circumference of
the big Russian revolution and secure the power to
themselves at home. In view of this the party was
quite indifferent to what the result would be for the
country in its entirety if pure anarchy and complete
mob-rule should be the result. It looked as if the
party had already lost the last remnant of its sense of

43

responsibility and all understanding of law, order and
civilisation, and that its road now lay in the direc-
tion of treason and civil war.

The course the strike took showed what the Red
Guard was worth. For several days cartloads of Russian
weapons had been rolling out towards the " People's
House " at Helsingfors. Now the" Working-men's Guard
Corps for the Maintenance of Order " were fully equipped.
They went round the streets and forcibly closed the shops.
They took possession of the headquarters of the police,
went over the photographic collection of criminals, and
destroyed photographs of thirty-one individuals who
were now trusted men in the Guard. Eight of them were
murderers. A lot of houses were searched, and in
Helsingfors alone close upon 200 persons were arrested.
Among these was the district magistrate, who sat
imprisoned until the month of January. The district

o

magistrate at Abo suffered the same fate. In the streets
patrols sauntered about with guns, now and then firing
a few volleys " for the maintenance of order."

But worse was still to come. At the order of the
" Revolutionary Central Council " the eighteen above-
mentioned ruffians from Helsinge were let out of the
district prison at Helsingfors. This was soon felt in their
native parish. For thither they went, cheered by the
crowd, after having been armed in the " People's House,"
and there they began their ravages again. First they
looked up a board-school teacher, rummaged through
his house, found nothing, took him with them into the
yard, set him against a wall and shot him. Laughing,
the band went on. The parish constable was visited by
them, and when he met them on his stairs he was fired
at and fell down badly wounded. The band went on
and shot the owner of an estate, who came driving
along the high road. In his company was a young

44

tradesman who succeeded in escaping. But the next
morning he was caught in his home and shot — he might
have proved an unpleasant witness. At the estate of
Hartonas the owner, Mr. Bergbonn, was sitting at his
breakfast table when a band of Red Guardsmen entered
and cried: " Hands up ! " Mr. Bergbonn was deaf, and
turned to his wife, asking : " What is it they are saying ? M
At the same moment there was a loud report and the
old gentleman fell dead to the floor, shot through the
head. As if nothing had happened the Red " ordermen "
now began to search for arms — which, of course, were
not found. A guards constable in private service was the
next victim. He was sitting in his little house when the
Red entered and ordered him to follow them. The wife
and children clung to the head of the family and would
not let him go. " You shall have him back again," say
the Red consolingly to the woman. Half an hour later
the door is opened and the dead body of the man is
thrown in. " There, you have your husband ! " cries a
voice outside.

In a detached villa near Helsingfors lived a widowed
lady, Mrs. Sahlstr0m, with her four young sons. They
had no reason for believing themselves hated or disliked
by the " people." But one morning at seven o'clock
they are awakened by a shot from the forest, and looking
out through the window they see that the watch-dog
lies shot by the steps. At the same moment there is a
hammering on the door, and the eldest son, Gunnar,
goes out to open it. Hardly has he put his head through
the opening when there is the crash of a volley and he
rolls down the steps into the yard, wounded though still
alive. At the sound of the reports and the savage oaths
Mrs. Sahlstr0m comes hurrying up, as also a younger
son, Ragnar, only dressed in his night-clothes. As soon
as he shows himself he, too, is saluted by a volley and

45

falls down beside his brother's body. Three bayonet
thrusts put an end to his life. The ruffians now rush
into the house and there find the two youngest boys,
the eldest fifteen years old. A gun is raised against
him, but the despairing mother has time to throw herself
between, and the bullet misses him. A thorough search
of the house is now begun, and with revolvers directed
against their breasts the boys are ordered to confess
44 where arms were concealed." There were none. Then
the men went out. Mrs. Sahlstr0m asked them to help
her to carry in the bodies of her two murdered sons
lying in a pool of blood in the yard. But the men only
laughed, and when she asked them to remove themselves
from out of her sight, they declared that they intended
to stay and " guard the house." Against whom ?

The strike lasted a week. In this short time the Red
force for the maintenance of order murdered thirty-four
persons. But besides these there were many wounded,
and several of the persons arrested were severely ill-
treated in prison. At the house-searches and by the
sequestration of various kinds of goods very great values
were lost. Articles of gold and silver disappeared, wine-

o

cellars were plundered. At Abo the funds of the food
control committee, 60,000 marks, were stolen, and sugar
to the value of 200,000 was distributed among " the
revolutionary people."

The general strike was brought to an end when it
was found that it did not lead to any actual result. It
had been a premature echo of the Bolshevik revolution in
St. Petersburg, but it had been started in the wrong
way by the official insistence on certain claims on
Government and Lantdag. In order that these claims
might be fulfilled the latter institutions had to function,
whereas the aim of a real revolution would, of course,
be their downfall. So the strike ended with the

46

declaration that the " valiant Red Guard of the Labour
ing Class shall always be maintained as an organisation/'
and that ' ' the Revolution continues. ' ' In the j ournal of the
Red Guard at Tammerfors the situation after the general
strike is designated as an " armistice,' ' during which the
Guard is to be reorganised and put into good fighting
condition.

One or two things seem to indicate that the revolution
strike was organised at the instance of Russia. Lenin
and his friends were not yet secure in their seats at
St. Petersburg, and, on the other hand, they had their
warmest adherents among the sailors in the Baltic fleet
at Helsingfors. If the Bolsheviks had been forced to
leave the Russian capital, Helsingfors would therefore
have been an eminently suitable retreat. It is not
improbable — certain features of the preparation for the
strike lends support to this idea — that Finland's soil
was to be prepared for making Helsingfors a safe head-
quarter for Bolshevism. From this place the work for
the world revolution could be directed just as well as,
or better than, from St. Petersburg. Still, this is a
conjecture which at least for the present cannot be proved.

When the strike broke out the country was without
any supreme State power, and the Government had
resigned. The exchequer was empty, and the food
crisis had reached a crucial point. Free Finland did not
find herself in any enviable position. As soon as the
Lantdag had assumed the supreme power it had to
choose a government. The Labour Party proposed an
unmixed " Red " senate. This would, however, pre-
suppose that a general pardon was to be granted for the
crimes perpetrated during the week of the strike As
this was a condition impossible to fulfil, a purely
bourgeoisie government was elected with Mr. Svinhufvud
at the head.

47

At this time there was much talk of a split within the
ranks of the Labour Party. It was said that some of its
more important members were beginning to lose their
enthusiasm for the Russian anarchy, and to realise
that the social revolution of the Bolsheviks, extended
to Finland, would mean the destruction of this country.
And undoubtedly there were signs that the week of the
strike, with its experience and consequences that so little
benefited the party, had sobered down several persons.
But this fact could lead to no result now the Red Guard
had once for all been let loose, and the continuance of
the revolution proclaimed. Those who could not go
to this length had to content themselves with silence
or faint protests and retreat. In spite of a bourgeoisie
majority in the Lantdag, and a purely bourgeoisie
government, in spite of the scruples .of the Socialists
themselves, the country had now been delivered up to
the two great anarchist and terrorist organisations, the
disbanding Russian army and the corps of the Red Guard.

The first task of the Government was to take measures
for the re-establishment of order. It was met by almost
insuperable obstacles. The force for the maintenance of
order, the police, had, as stated before, disappeared, and
in its place was found a local militia dependent on the
Labour Party. This militia was very soon forced to a
complete submission to all the demands of the Red
Guard. It was therefore necessary to establish a new
force, a force for the maintenance of order that would be
independent of all parties, a national militia. Before
the problem of this strong force for the maintenance
of order could be solved — and its solution in the Lantdag
on positive lines became the signal for the outbreak of
the insurrrection in January — the Protective Corps had
to be strengthened and armed. The already mentioned
police school near Borga had been stormed during the

48

week of the strike by a large force of Red Guards and
Russian sailors, the men had fled, the kitchen staff had
been murdered, the horses stolen.*

A fresh beginning had to be made, and 0sterbotten
was chosen as the centre for the new organisation.

But the Government had other equally important
problems to solve. The independence of Finland had to
be secured, food to be procured, and finances to be restored.
The field of work was extensive, it all took time, and
the Red gang and their comrades, the Russians, could
therefore continue their activity undisturbed.

It became one of the chief tasks of the Red Guard
after the strike to protect its felonious members against
all designs on the part of the force for the maintenance
of order. In this they were very successful. None of
the murderers or robbers from the strike were caught ;
only an unfortunate thief was twice arrested by detectives
and twice forcibly liberated by his comrades. Each
time he was liberated he scolded them soundly because
they had not made more haste. Likewise the gains of
the revolution were defended by retaining the prisoners
in gaol. The district magistrates at Abo and Helsingiors
were each in his separate cell. At Abo the Red had also
taken possession of the lower and higher courts which
were thus prevented from working. But a new branch
of activity soon flourished for the corps of the Red Guard.
From the local representatives in town and country
they claimed compensation for the maintenance of order
during the strike ! At Abo a claim of half a million was
lodged, with the threat of plundering the city if the money
were not forthcoming. The money was advanced —
worse luck ! At Helsingfors the amount was one million,

* The horses causing the Red Guard a deal of trouble, a good
way of getting rid of them was hit upon later on : it was pro-
posed that the Government should buy them !

49

at Tammerfors only 100,000, etc. In like manner, the
working men began to demand full pay from their
employers for the strike days. It was extortion on a
grand scale.

Such was the condition of affairs when the month of

December

came. Immediately on the morning of the 1st the
newspape^readers had a fresh sensation : Seven armed
men in plain clothes had escorted two goods vans packed
full of fire-arms across the frontier ; they prevented all
examination, failed to show any papers whatever, but
saw to it that the vans reached their destination — the
towns Kuopio and Lahti, where the contents were
unloaded and taken to the houses of the working-men's
club in the charge of a guard. This was the first of the
many batches of fire-arms which arrived from Russia
in the course of the month. The corps of the Red Guard
had tasted blood, and the rifles they had employed
during the general strike had for the greater part been
borrowed of the Russians, and had to be given back again.
Instead, the kind Russian Bolsheviks, who in meeting
after meeting had proclaimed the principle of self-
determination for the peoples, and specially laid stress
upon the right of Finland to full independence being as
plain as day, now sent any amount of weapons and
ammunition to the corps of the Red Guard, whose task
it was to crush the Finnish parties which were really in
earnest about the right of self-determination. The customs
and railway authorities lodged one objection after another
but could do nothing, as they lacked all means of power.
Thus the Russians distributed arms to the corps of the
Red Guard throughout the country. Not only rifles and
cartridges arrived, but also machine-guns — at the very
least about a hundred. As the Russian military were

D

50

besides provided with a lot of cannon, and to all intents
and purposes they identified themselves with the Red,
it was only natural that all sensible citizens looked to
the future with anxiety.

In an excess of optimism it was, however, hoped that
the alteration of the external position of the country
would also carry along with it a fortunate solution of
the internal problems. On the 4th December the
Government solemnly, in the Lantdag, declared Finland
to be an independent, neutral State. The Foreign
Powers would be immediately communicated with in
order to obtain recognition of her independence, and,
with regard to the relations with Russia, this question
would be submitted to the Russian Constituent Assembly
on its meeting. If Finland's emancipation from Russia
was once acknowledged, it was the general opinion that
the departure of the Russian troops from Finland would
come about of its own accord. And as the Bolsheviks
were labouring to secure an early peace, and had
commenced the demobilisation of the army immediately
after the armistice, it looked as if the stay of the Russian
military in Finland was not going to be of any great
length. If the military again took its departure it would
no longer be an impossibility to restore order in the
country. When the corps of the Red Guard were
deprived of their strongest support, they were sure to
return to sense.

Thus it was argued under the influence of the bright
prospects shown by foreign affairs. But the acts of
violation were continued. On the 4th December the
City Council at Tammerfors were locked in by great
crowds of working-men who demanded higher wages,
and refused to let the council disperse before their demands
were granted. After being imprisoned for a day and a
night under threats and bawling, the besieged were

5i

liberated. One of them was, however, wounded with a
knife as he went away. It is a characteristic fact that
as the besiegers, consisting of all sorts of vagabonds,
formerly labourers at the fortification works, had not
carried out their action with the permission of the Red
Guard, the latter determined at a meeting to take the
city council under its protection in its character of
maintainer of order. After a short debate, the Guard is
qnitfe clear as to what shape the " protection " should
take. The Red Guard undertakes to liberate the
prisoners if they will consent to the conditions of the
working-men. But if they do not, the Red Guard will
consider their function as members of the city council
as suspended, and they will not be allowed to hold any
meetings unless the Red Guard gives its consent. At
the same meeting the militia (police) corps of the city
declares that it wishes to co-operate with the Guard in
all respects, and that it will discard all " untrustworthy "
elements from its midst. The working-men at Tammerfors
demanded full pay later on for the two days they had kept
the city council locked up.

Next came the turn of the city council at Viborg.
They were locked up for one night. Then the city
fathers of Kotka. Against these latter proceedings were
carried on in another way. A crowd of working-men
sought them out in their homes, and forcibly conveyed
them to a meeting in the city hall. Here they were to
grant the Red Guard 150,000 marks at once. This
took place on the nth December. Already on the 9th
the militia corps had declared a strike, so that the city
had no police force. Until the evening of the 12th the
prisoners received no food. All factories in the town
had stopped, and all Government offices suspended their
activities as a counter-move. Red Guards and Russian
soldiers were on guard, searched houses and made arrests.

d 2

52

On account of the threatening situation, the city council
at last acceded to the demands of the Red and were
liberated.

On the 13th the city council at Bjorneborg were locked
in, and liberated on the 14th.

This kind of farce was played all over the country,
and the course it took was entirely dependent on how
quick the threatened authorities were in acceding to the
demands of the Red. But mob-rule reached its culminat-
ing point at Abo. In this town the co-operation between
the Red and the Russians had all the time been specially
intimate, and the elements of pure ruffianism had also
been unusually amply represented. The population of
the town which had experienced an endless succession
of threats and outrages groaned heavily under the
yoke of terrorism, and showed signs of despair, a fact
which as a matter of course increased the valour and
exactions of the Red. They had taken over the police
force and formed their own " militia.' ' As the latter
was of more than doubtful worth, the authorities of the
town naturally wished to put in a word on the subject,
but the Red would not agree to this. As their demands
had been twice granted, but new demands were constantly
forthcoming, the authorities thought it might now be
reasonable to refuse and to propose a conference. This
proposal was answered by the striking of the militia,
and with a sufficiently plain threat that the state of
the city would be made so unsafe that the effects could
not be foreseen. On Saturday the 5th December the
militia was withdrawn, and Sunday evening the mob
was sent to show what could be arranged if desired.
Riotous crowds, among them many Russian soldiers,
swarmed towards the middle of the town, and began to
loot the shops. The large show-windows were smashed,
the fixtures destroyed, and the goods dragged off in

53

sacks and bundles, on handbarrows, or in any way that
suggested itself. This uproar kept on all night, and the
militia-men rejoiced in their successful strike. On the
Monday the Red Guard took possession of the post
office, the banks, etc. In the evening the looting was
madly continued. In the course of Tuesday Russian
dragoon patrols interfered — it is stated : Ukrainians —
and restored order in the course of the next day and night,
much shooting.

The Labour Party, of course, dissociated itself from
events at Abo, and declared that they were provoked by
the citizens themselves. Against this may be adduced
what the soldiers at Abo communicate in their own paper.
In this it is said : " The Soldiers' Executive Committee
knew beforehand what would happen, but on account of a
private communication from the Finnish Revolutionary
Committee no measures were taken."

Thus also the month of December passed in violent
unrest and under unlimited mob-rule ; we have only been
able to report a few of the most sensational events here.
The Red bands harried the country, the Russian bands
harried the country, no resistance could be offered nor any
effective defence set up. A couple of examples of some
aspects of the activity of the Red, which have not yet
been touched upon, may complete the picture. The
Red Guard, which thought itself that it had a great task
to accomplish, of course felt painfully the manner in
which the bourgeoisie papers exposed its doings. At a
public meeting held by the Red Guard at Tammerfors on
the 29th November, the style of writing of the papers
is sharply blamed and the assembly decide to administer
a warning as " the papers cannot be stopped now during
the armistice." Two weeks later Russian soldiers forbid
the appearance of a Tammerfors paper as it had con-
tained a paragraph stating that not all Russian soldiers

54

in Finland are Bolsheviks. This is plainly enough felt
as an outrage upon their honour. The staff of the Red
Guard deal with this curious judgment and resolve that
the Russians can do as they like, stop the paper or not,
according to their pleasure. A peculiar view of the
liberty of speech and the independence of Finland !

Another occurrence. In the middle of December seven
goods vans arrived from St. Petersburg, sealed and
guarded by armed men of the Red Guard. They con-
tained spirits for technical use — it was said — and went
as military goods. At Helsingfors, where the vans were
to be unloaded, the authorities interfered so energetically
that the unloading did not come off, but no more did the
customs examination. The vans stood in the station,
guarded both by Red Guards and custom-house officers.
There were rumours abroad : was it firearms, explosives,
or what ? The riddle was soon solved and the contents
of the vans proved to be actually spirits, i.e., 1,296 cases
of Russian spirits purchased in Russia b}' the English
Legation and designed for the English Red Cross. The
cases had disappeared from the custom-house office at
St. Petersburg. The Reds at Helsingfors thus missed
their stolen Christmas liquor, and these ardent teetotallers,
who poured away all spirits they found in their house-

o

searches, at Abo in the week of the strike alone 30,000
litres, now had to go sober all the holidays.

January.

While this marauding was continued round about in
the country, the Government laboured at obtaining
recognition of Finland's independence. In the first days
of January the goal was very nearly reached ; the
Bolshevik government in Russia had acknowledged the
country's independence, so had Germany, Austria-
Hungary, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. This fact, as

55

w 11 as the peace conference in Brest-Litovsk, which
revealed the utter impotence of Russia, influenced the
situation in Finland. It was necessary for the Labour
Party to take a stand upon the subject. Either the
ful development of free Finland to a Western State
emancipated from Russian dependence and Russian
anarchy, or a Finland continually whirling round in the
maelstrom of the Russian revolution, sinking into an
Eastern chaos, into a gulf of anarchy and terrorism.
The party chose the latter alternative. It was the
natural consequence of its previous activity and of
Russian pressure. But it could not have sunk into the
arms of Bolshevism if it had let itself be guided by fairly
reasonable views and not by the two powerful passions
which now quite blinded it : lust of power and class
hatred. The party subordinated itself to the plans of
the Russian Bolsheviks, though reluctantly in certain
quarters.

These latter were no secret. The formula of the self-
determination of nations threatened Russia with destruc-
tion. And the peace with Germany was soon to establish
the fact that the provinces which had emancipated
th mselves were politically independent. Undoubtedly
Lenin's whole policy was directed towards preventing
such a national disaster to Russia. And the means he
employed was the social revolution of the world. It
was to paralyze Germany's power, and it was to keep
hold of the provinces within the boundaries of the
Russian Empire which, without being occupied by the
troops of the Central Powers, were now wandering their
own ways. The same course was taken in the Ukraine,
Estland, and Finland. The Bolsheviks intended to
monopolise the power, if in no other way, by force. In
this way these states would again become attached to
Russia. For even if no separate nations existed to the

56

Bolsheviks, even if they formed an international
proletariat, yet they had one centre and one chief : St.
Petersburg and Lenin. The mighty Russian dreams of
conquest here appeared in a new garb. The conquest of
the world which so many highstrung Russian souls had
imagined in the time of Tsarism, now cropped up again
in a new shape : a proletariat world dictatorship under
Russian leadership. If this dim goal was not reached,
what had formerly constituted the Russian Empire should
at least be retained under the Russian sceptre — the
sceptre of the Russian proletariat.

Now, as regards Finland specially, we see the tendencies
of Bolshevism reflected in some observations from this
time. At a congress in St. Petersburg on the 5th
December, 19 17, Lenin says : " Let the bourgeoisie
despicably and pitiably quarrel over and bargain about
the frontiers. The working-men in all countries and of
all nationalities will not let themselves be divided for
so paltry a reason. We are just about to conquer Finland."
This is indeed plain speaking. Finland may emancipate
herself from Russia as much as she likes, it will not in-
fluence the labourers. Thanks to them the Russian
Bolsheviks reconquer the country and so " self-determina-
tion " is disposed of.

On the 19th December the official Bolshevik organ
at Helsingfors has the following item : " There is one
thing the bourgeoisie have not realised, that self-
determination of the nations is conceivable if only the
bourgeois upper class power be crushed." That is to say
that self-determination is a delusion, for when the
" bourgeois upper class power " is replaced by the
dictatorship of the proletariat, there will be no nations
any more, only classes.

When finally the Bolshevik Government acknowledged
the independence of Finland, it was, as one of its members ,

57

st and telegraph minister Proschjan, expressly declares,
94 trusting that it will not be long before the proletariat
of Finland begins the fight of the revolution and takes
the reins of its country into its own hands. ' ' This "trust "
was plainly based on a promise, given by the Finnish
Labour Party, before the independence was acknowledged
by the Bolshevik Government. This promise was
apparently the reason why the acknowledgment was
granted at all.

The position of the Labour Party was, however, most
difficult. The activities of the bourgeois government had
successful, the independence of Finland had been
acknowledged, and now the leaders could turn with
greater energy upon the interior anarchy, and particularly
upon its most essential cause : the Russian troops. The
demand that these should be at once withdrawn could
now be preferred with greater force after even the
Bolsheviks' own government had acknowledged the
independence of Finland. And it required a lot of Russian
evasions about '* a general plan of evacuation " and all
sorts of vague phrases about the necessity of " defending
the roads to St. Petersburg, the heart of the revolution,
against German imperialism," in order to hold out against
the well-founded and peremptory demand of the Finnish
Government that the undisciplined troops should be
withdrawn. But deprived of these Russian soldiers the
position of the Labour Party was not of course very
strong.

On the other hand the Red Guard caused its party
anxiety. Its ravages and looting, its growing interference
in all concerns, the arbitrary seizures of all the stores of
the food regulation authorities which it indulged in, in
short, the complete terrorism it practised, could not
strengthen the " cause of the revolution." According to
the statutes of the Guard it ought to be under the complete

58

control of the party leaders. These latter, after the
November strike, made many attempts to purge the ranks
of the army at least to some slight extent, and particularly
to render it an obedient instrument in the hands of the
party. But the Red Guard approached nearer and nearer
to the age of majority. It was now very well armed and
its relations with the Russians were so intimate that it
knew exceedingly well the meaning of "an independent
fighting organisation " after the Russian pattern. It
strove to emancipate itself from the party. But such an
emancipation would really mean that the Red Guard took
over the leadership in the party, for who would dare to
oppose its unscrupulous armed force ?

The meeting of the Red Guard on the 6th January,
which was the introduction to the palace revolution,
took a characteristic course. Some Russian " comrades "
from St. Petersburg appeared before a crowded hall,
explaining the course of the revolution in Russia, and
at the same time expressing their surprise at the tame
revolutionary movement in Finland which was specially
doubtful and faltering during the November strike. The
Russians gave it as their opinion that the party leaders
at Helsingfors were not truly revolutionary. These utter-
ances were received with a storm of applause. A
proposal for new statutes was now submitted and was
carried immediately.

A comparison between the old and the new statutes
shows what the purpose was, viz. : to place the leadership
of the " continuing revolution " in the hands of the Red
Guard. This would afford security against the contin-
gency that some poor cowards among the party leaders
would prevent extreme measures against the citizens
which it would perhaps be " forced " to adopt. Whereas
the first paragraph of the old statutes quite innocently
stated that "it is the business of the Guard to protect

59

the labourers' liberties of association, assembly, gp
and press, and on the whole to serve as a protection to
tlu rights of the labourers," this clause in the new statutes
has received the following addition : " and to act as an

utive revolutionary force for the aims of the
labourers." In the new statutes the second paragraph is
quite aew. It runs : " The Red Guard obey the com-
mands issued by the General Staff of the Guard. If
during the revolution another revolutionary institution,
local or embracing the whole country, should arise, the
political power will pass over to the latter." In the old
Statutes the following decision is made with regard to the
supreme administration of the Guard : " The administra-
tion of the Guard embracing the whole country is
constituted by a management committee of five, whose
m mbers are elected and removed by the party leaders
and the leaders of the Co-operating Trade Unions at a
general meeting." Now it is said : "At the head of
the Red Guard of the whole country is a Commander-
in-Chief elected by the representative meeting of the
Guard, and a General Staff. The latter consists of eight

ibers, out of which the Party Leaders and the Leaders
of the Co-operative Trade Unions each elect two, and the
Representative Meeting of the Guard, four."

By these and other similar decisions the Red Guard
was freed from the tutelage of the party. It now pro-
ceeded to take over the leadership of the revolution
entirely. Uncertain and faltering the choragi of the
party looked on at this advance of the most violent
elements. It is a typical fact that they dared not utter
a single manly word of warning, but wriggled through the
difficulties with vague phrases. How completely they
had actually been forced to submit to the power of the
Guard is proved by the fact that, already several days
before the outbreak of the insurrection, the party's.

6o

representatives in the Lantdag had been forbidden to
leave Helsingfors without a written permit from the chief
of the Red Guard.

To everyone in the Labour Party who was not
blinded by hatred of the bourgeoisie and lust of
power it must be plain that a revolution in Finland
would be utter madness. With the power it com-
manded in parliament the party might carry through
almost any reforms and had, as before mentioned,
already got some extremely radical bills passed
while others were on the road. The demand for a
Constituent Assembly was devoid of all sense, as
the country's parliament might be considered as such,
and as it had been seen how the good party comrades,
the Bolsheviks, had dissolved their National Assembly in
Russia. The only point on which the bourgeoisie parties
insisted inexorably was the question of Finland being
drawn into the maelstrom of the Russian revolution.
The most primitive instinct of self-preservation was
sufficient to tell one that the only way the country ought
not to choose was just the way the Red Guard Corps
were going.

And to the more experienced men among the leaders
of the Labour Party, too, Finland's immersion in the
Russian revolution really looked like a very serious
matter. The condition of affairs in Finland was too
different from that in Russia for any possibility of
carrying through the programme of the social revolution
of the Bolsheviks in Finland. In the first place there
could not be any question of " nationalising " the land
in a country with a very large class of freeholding
peasantry. So Finland was to take part in the Russian
revolution, and yet not take any real part in it — so vague
was the programme, so great the vacillation. These vague
feelings among the leaders of the party, the conviction

6i

that the Red Guard had usurped the power, fear
of the consequences, the realisation of the fact that a
social revolution was impossible in Finland, besides the
terror of being either a participant or a non-participant —
all this is plainly reflected in a lengthy article by Yrj0
i, the future minister for foreign affairs in the
Government of the rebels, published on the 12th January.
In many columns he first proves the slight prospect of
a social revolution in Finland before such a revolution
has taken place in the countries that are the chief strong-
holds of the capitalist system, and then goes on to say : —

" But though we are of opinion that we shall not in
tin near future be drawn into any social revolution, yet
the situation may develop into revolution. The class
conflict which now shows itself in the clash of economical
mt ivsts, in local disputes, in quarrels over sheriffs' offices
— nay, even in an armed guerilla war — may perhaps soon
come to a head in a decisive struggle for the power.
It is plain to everybody that the state of affairs will
be unendurable when the interior situation grows worse
and worse. Only the ruffians and the instigators of the
reaction will derive any benefit from the spread of
anarchy in this country. But order may be established
either in a ' lawful ' or a revolutionary way."

The lawful way is that of the party accepting a
proposal submitted by the Government to the Lantdag
for the establishment of a police force independent of
the parties. The revolutionary way is that of the party
overthrowing the Government. Sirola continues : —

" As I understand it there are now elements within
our party that wish for such an appropriation of the
governing power, and other elements that have no special
desire for it. But above the question whether any of us
wish this or not, stands necessity. The situation may
develop in such a way that we must at least make an

62

attempt. The conviction that this is so may become so
general that both the Party Council and the Lantdag
group will share it. But above all the working-men
themselves ought to have a clear understanding of the
matter. In each commune they should find out whether
they can obtain the power there. In each district the
district secretary and the leaders should calculate the
extension of our power and that of our opponents.
Everywhere the wTorking-men should try to realise in
what sort of a position such an attempt might place
us."

The writer thereupon quotes a bit from Marx, and
goes on to say : —

'* The most important principle is that one must not
play with rebellion. We must therefore be quite clear
beforehand as to what we want. According to the
opinion of the undersigned the following propositions
must be regarded as the foundation of all that is done
in this direction.

" I. That no attempt be made at a social revolution
and that the supervision of the production and business
generally be not interfered with in greater measure than
is necessary in order to live — that is to say, in the same
measure as a civil state is obliged to interfere, especially
in time of war and a state of general distress.

" 2. That decisive measures, e.g., against the Lantdag,
be not taken before the great bulk of our party is con-
vinced of the necessity of proceeding to such. If this is
not the case the revolutionaries may form agitation
groups in furtherance of the work for the promotion
of knowledge which they desire, but without breaking
the common front which must be kept unbroken against
the reaction. If, on the other hand, some groups are not
satisfied with this, but intend under any circumstances
whatever to proceed to action, they should quit the

63

party and form their own organisation. It will then
know its own extent and strength, and may decide
when the moment has come for it to proceed to action.

"3. No action should be taken which completely
isolates the proletariat in such an undertaking. By this
1 mean that the lower middle class and the small farmers
or, on the whole, people in humbler circumstances should
not be irritated so that they go against us."

The writer concludes : " Above all we need courage.
The undersigned is not one of the bravest of men, but
every one must now add his stone to the building, for the
state of affairs is serious."

No, Mr. Sirola was not one of the bravest of men.
He wanted to warn, but dared not. He wanted to turn
the Red Guard out of the party so that it should not have
the worst of it in the event of a defeat, but he dared not
do so openly. He speaks of coming to " a clear under-
standing of the situation," but by this he means that an
estimate is to be made of the strength of both sides.

Tin- psychological moment for a powerful opposition
to the revolutionary tendencies within the party should
now have come. But nothing was seen but Mr. Sirola's
irresolute and pitiable article. And already on the 15th
January the party leaders have retired altogether behind
tli« ranks of the Red Guard Corps. On that day the latter
issues an appeal under the following headlines : —

Gather the Forces of the Proletariat !

The Senate intends to fall upon the Labourers with

Slaughtering Forces !

Select pieces of the appeal run as follows : —
" The bourgeois majority of the Lantdag has given
its Senate unrestricted authority to exercise a dictator-
ship of violence." " The dissatisfied proletariat is threat-
ened with swords and lead, whereas it ought to have

64

bread, democracy and the crofters' emancipation." " The
working-men's Red Guard Corps are evidently absolutely
necessary for the protection of Finland's Labour class in
these days." " At the last party meeting of the Social-
Democratic Party there was not one who proposed to
dissolve this Guard, or that the working-men should
deliver up their arms. Therefore, let the bourgeois, who
now scoff at the whole working-men's guard, and the
Senate who wish to proceed to attack with an armed
force, let them know that this would be to attack the
working class of all Finland. Against such a threat the
working-men must strengthen their Guard Corps."

The appeal is an answer to a resolution passed the
day before by the officers of the Red Guard. In this
the Red Guard demand the immediate summoning of a
party meeting and put forward a succession of demands
in connection with the shortage of food, unemployment,
etc. " Tn order that these ends nay be gained, the political
power should be taken over by the Social-Democratic
Party. Before measures are taken to put the governing
power into the hands of our party, the supreme adminis-
tration of the Guard ought to be given over to a com-
mittee chosen in accordance with the statutes. If the
situation demand it, the supreme command of the Guard
should take the management of the revolution into its
hands."

The revolution was thus decided upon by the Red
Guard, and the Labour Party had submitted to the
decision. The reason for this was simple enough. The
Government and the majority in the Lantdag threatened
to deprive the Red Guard of its power. Such a thing
must not happen, and so the problem could only be
solved in one wa}'. The Government must be overthrown.

When in November the Lantdag resolved to take
over the supreme power itself, no definite line was drawn

65

between the spheres of activity of the Government and
the Lantdag. The chief of [the Government, Mr. Svin-
hufvud, had, however, expressly emphasised, when he
assumed office, that the ability of the Government to
carry out any work at all would, of course, be subject
to its obtaining such rights as pertain to the Government
of a country. As such he mentions amongst other things
the right of bringing in Bills before the Lantdag and
of nominating certain higher officials. However, the
Labour Party, of course, made an extensive use of the
possibilities for opposition which the obscurity with
regard to the competence of the Government and the
Parliament gave rise to. Everything the Government
did without asking leave of the Lantdag was at once
branded as an attempt at a State stroke. Even such
measures as a resolution to alter the size of the copper
coins was an M attempt at a State stroke."

By such means the Labour Party had succeeded in
making the masses believe that the Government, and the
majority in the Lantdag upon which it leaned, consisted
of a collection of black reactionaries who abused their
power in a shameful manner — a power which had been
treacherously wrenched from the people. Measures dis-
pleasing to the Labour Party now followed in rapid
succession. At the beginning of January a Bill was
brought in by A. Mikkola and others, concerning the
re-establishment of the country's army, and it was
eagerly supported by the bourgeois groups. There was
nothing singular in this — a new-born State in the critical
position of Finland absolutely needed an army, however
small, in order to support her first tottering steps towards
liberty. The Labour Party, however, did what they could
to stop the Bill. Furthermore, a parliamentary com-
mittee were working at a proposal for the reorganisation
of the police, which it had been attempted to make

1

66

acceptable to the Labour Party by letting the force be
under the commune. On the 9th January the Government
finally sent the Lantdag a proposal for the establishment
of a strong force for the maintenance of order, under the
control of the Government, to put a stop to the anarchy
in the country. As this proposal has been characterised
by the Labour Party as an undisguised challenge and
declaration of war, there may be some reason to print
it here in its entirety. The proposal runs as follows : —

To Finland's Lantdag.

After long-continued sore trials and sufferings our
country has attained political independence and freedom.
But the interior situation of the country does not in
any way answer to even the most primitive foundation
for or claims of such a free position. The necessary order
does not reign in the country, neither as regards the life,
property and rights of our own fellow-countrymen, or
those of the numerous foreigners living here. The daily
statements, both of the authorities concerned, and the
foreign representatives, and the papers, speak of this
in the plainest terms. This very day there have been
sanguinary encounters in the near neighbourhood of the
citj^ between the so-called Red Guard of Helsingf ors and
the peaceful population, provoked by the former, in

o

which even lives have been lost. From Abo communication
has just been received that the Red Guard of that city
has insulted three Swedes, and amongst other things
thrown their luggage into the street from a hotel.
Anarchist elements, arrived from Russia, have come to
stay here, and are acting quite overtly and with violence,
sowing the seed of revolution and anarchy among such
elements among the soldiers garrisoned here as were
already beforehand somewhat unquiet. The state of
affairs grows every moment more and more serious, and,

67

within a short space of time, will throw our country into
complete anarchy if an improvement of circumstances
does not soon take place. The police, which at least in
the larger cities of the country, after the revolution in
Russia last March and owing to communications received
from there, were organised as a militia partly through
the Labour organisations and partly by the exertions of
communal organisations, have not been able to counteract
or suppress the arbitrariness or criminal tendencies
reigning in several places in the land, nor are they equal
to their task, nor is the training of the militia satisfactory.
There are even cities where the Red Guard have taken
possession of the police stations without themselves
taking measures, or permitting others to take measures,
for the maintenance of order. In the opinion of the
Senate, a militia of this kind, which cannot accomplish
its task, is inadequate — even if some improvements may
be made on the lines indicated in the proposal forwarded
to the Lantdag. Beyond this, and for its completion, a
capable, trustworthy and loyal corps for the maintenance
of order is required. This is needed at once, both on
account of the above-mentioned lamentable internal
situation, as well as on account of the pressure put on
the Government by numerous foreign powers, particularly
England and Sweden, in consequence of the indignities
the subjects of these countries residing in Finland have
been exposed to.

In consequence of what is stated above, the Senate has
considered itself called upon, by the actual circumstances,
to proceed without fail to measures for the establishment
of such an effective and unimpeachable Finnish Corps
for the Maintenance of Order, which could be trusted to
maintain order and security in the land.

These measures will, of course, involve considerably
greater expenses than it has been customary to assign

E 2

68

for the maintenance of the police. The Government
does not see its way, and has not considered it
necessary at the present time, to suggest what means
will be required for the organisation and support of a
reinforced corps for the maintenance of order, but will
give information on this point in the proposals submitted
to the Lantdag concerning expenditure and revenues
for the year 19 18.

In view of what has been stated, and as the Govern-
ment for the above-mentioned purpose will need more
funds than usual, the Government expects,

" That the Lantdag will decide to authorise
the Government to take all such measures as it
deems necessary to build up a strong force for the
maintenance of order in this country.' '

The motion had every prospect of being carried in
the Lantdag, the Labour Party, however, did as much
as they could to delay the decision, and in the meanwhile
to arm their Red Guard, for the state of affairs now began
to be threatening. The proposal of the Government
would in reality mean that the Protective Corps spread
throughout the country were now to be changed into a
Government Police Corps, whose activity could not be
opposed with impunity. The proper moment for such
a reorganisation seemed at last to have come. What
with the renewed livelier action of the Red Guard, and
the growing resentment against the encroachments of
the ruffianly elements, disorderly encounters with arms
were to be feared all over the country. It would thus
be much better if all the good intentions to wipe out the
anarchy were placed under one uniform guidance, even
if one incurred the risk of what one would not have liked
to risk before — civil war.

The outlines of an actual situation of war became more
and more clearly defined. In the course of the first

6g

ten days of January the Red Guard carried out several
large operations. They gave orders for 300 Russian
soldiers to go to Nyslott. They arrived by special
train, and began to ravage the little town. The
subordinate functionaries were arrested, house-searches
were made, robberies committed, etc. The district
magistrate at Helsingfors who walked out of the prison
one day and took up his official duties again, received
a visit from some Red Guardsmen, who declared that
within forty-eight hours he must be outside the precincts
of the district of Nyland, or they would not answer for
his safety. — The Government received a written com-
munication from the Red Guard, in which the dismissal

o

of the district magistrate of Abo and Uleaborg was
demanded — or the Guard would proceed to " active
measures." The building formerly used as a residence
by the Governor-General, at Helsingfors, and now made
use of by the Social Department,* was coolly taken
possession of one fine day by the Red Guard that needed
spacious rooms in a central position for their headquarters.
— One morning a considerable number of armed Red
Guardsmen " took " a train in the station at Helsingfors,
departed to the nearest stations on the main line, took
possession of them, and sent a division of sixty men to an
adjacent, larger, village in the parish of Sibbo to plunder.
Resistance was, however, offered, the Red were fired at
by the peasants, lost a couple of men, and retired. In
the Labour Press this was characterised as murder
committed on peaceful working-men by the citizens. —
At Viborg great crowds of roughs collected from Abo,
Helsingfors, and St. Petersburg, because the militia
threatened to strike, and because it seemed as if there
would be an opportunity for plundering. At Frederik-
shamn, where a number of sempstresses had struck, the
* An institution for social affairs working under the Home Office.

70

Red Guard thought that the demands of the strikers were
not complied with quickly enough. They therefore, with
the assistance of Russian soldiers, arrested all the Govern-
ment officials of the town, and took them to the lock-up.
When the Red had kept them there for one night it
was thought that they would be sufficiently humbled,
and now a lot of demands were made : the city was to
grant the Red Guard 50,000 marks for the maintenance
of order. Not until the evening, when they had gone
without food for a night and a day, and been subject
to the wildest threats, did the prisoners submit. — At
Mariehamn on Aland Russian soldiers shot one person,
wounded one, and arrested three.

Those were only the greater occurrences. Innumer-
able lesser ones took place at the same time. But also
the Protective Corps began to stir. The failure of the
marauding expedition to Sibbo gave the Protective Corps
in these parts occasion for stationing guards along the
railway line, etc. In 0sterbotten there were signs that
the new Government force, which was mainly being
organised there, began to excite a wholesome respect
among the Russian soldiers. The general feeling in all
sensible circles began to be more optimistic. Perhaps
anarchy could really be crushed, perhaps the threats
hurled out b}7 the adherents of the Labour Party in the
Lantdag when the Force for the Maintenance of Order
was at last sanctioned after a hot debate lasting eighteen
hours, perhaps they were only an outbreak of impotent
fury at the defeat of the party.

And yet these hopes were again dashed. The Labour
Party got into closer and closer relations with the Russian
soldiers, and the behaviour of the latter became more and
more lawless. The more time that passed the more
sick and tired the soldiers got of all meetings, speeches,
and demonstrations. They wanted to arrange every-

71

thing for their own greatest convenience. Thus, e.g.,
the sailors of the Baltic fleet had several really first-class
places of entertainment at their disposal. At St. Peters-
burg they had seized two very large and very fine
Imperial steam-yachts, the " Standard " and the " Polar-
star," and taken them to Helsingfors, and they had
purchased one of the largest and most fashionable hotels
in the city with a theatre, etc., and made it into a sailor's
club. Balls were given at the barracks, and several of
the lady guests lived for weeks and months in the
barracks. All sorts of new organisations were formed.
Thus an anarchist club took up its quarters in the fine
officers' casino, and hung out its flag there — a skull
with crossbones on a black ground. One night two
bombs were thrown against the building ; it was
apparently some super-anarchist organisation at work.
One society called itself terrorists, and their banner was
red with a black star in the middle. They also got a
fine house for themselves, the Russian harbour captain's,
and a couple of motor cars (and I may insert here that
motoring was one of the greatest pleasures of the
M proletariat ") and advertised for members. The pro-
gramme ran : " war against imperialism in all the world,
not a life struggle, but a struggle to the death."

These examples show how far removed the Russian
military were from all order and discipline, and yet the
Labour Party opposed their departure from the country,
yet the party held a banquet in honour of liberty together
with the soldiers on the occasion of Finlands' indepen-
dence, inviting the soldiers on the grounds that the
Finnish working-man's place is by the side of the soldiers,
not by that of the bourgeois.

And so events took their course. The Labour Party
would not let go the power they held by the aid of the
mob and demoralised bands of Russian soldiers, while

72

all those who had not been drawn into the whirlpool of
anarchy now prepared in real earnest to beat down this
loathsome regime that infested the country like a plague.
Some acts of violence were still committed. In the
middle of January the Red committed two murders,
while the soldiers, sometimes in uniform but with masks
before their faces, sometimes furnished with cotton
saturated with chloroform, committed robbery and

o

pillage. At Abo the Red had chosen for their head-
quarters a navigation school lying on a hill, and taken
possession of it without ceremony ; at Kask0 the soldiers
celebrated the Russian new year by seizing upon 400
litres of brandy from a bonded warehouse, making them-
selves drunk on it and fighting. They did not settle
down until they had two killed and several wounded.

Soon the state of affairs becomes very critical. The
Red take up the offensive in real earnest in order to
draw the Protective Corps and then destroy them. On
the 2 1st January two trains with soldiers are sent from
St. Petersburg to 0sterbotten, the centre of the Pro-
tective Corps, most singular tactics, considering the
acknowledged independence of Finland, and the many
promises that the soldiers should be withdrawn from the
country. And at Viborg serious disturbances break
out.

On Saturday, the 19th January, the Red in that
city suddenly surround a factory, and try to break in
with a force of 100 men. Seventeen persons, the owner
of the factory, his sons and others, offer resistance
inside the building. A violent firing ensues. Russian
soldiers come flocking to the assistance of the Red, who,
at last, on the Sunday morning, succeed in forcing their
way into the house and taking captive its defenders,
a couple of whom were severely wounded. It had been
the intention of the Red to search the factory. The

73

fighting spread in the city, the Red sent out patrols
everywhere, and searched all pedestrians. Those who
carried arms were arrested. Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday passed in comparative quiet, i.e., the Red and
the Russians were masters in the city, gave chase to the
Protective Corps, instituted house-searches and arrests.
The Red took up their quarters in the Russian barracks,
and were thus ready to sally forth at any time. On
Monday night two young men, clerks, travelling on busi-
ness, were murdered just outside the city. In the
meanwhile the peasants in the neighbourhood had
become exasperated, and, on the Tuesday evening,
marched into the city under arms, and took possession
of the railway station. They met with no resistance,
but the Red and the Russians demonstrated their power
by opening a lively fire in the central part of the town,
both with rifles and machine guns. In order to improve
the effect some cannon shot were also fired. Four
persons were killed, amongst them two women. One
received a bullet in the abdomen on coming out from the
theatre, another a bullet in the neck while leaning out
of the window to look at the riots. Many were wounded.
The peasant Protective Corps received a visit at the
station from a deputation of soldiers, who declared that
the Corps must retire, or else the city would be shot to
ruins by artillery fire. In face of this threat, the Protec-
tive Corps thought itself compelled to retire, and the
soldiers now took possession of the station.

Wednesday proved a melancholy day. Sixty-eight
persons were arrested and taken to the barracks, two
prisoners were murdered quite meaninglessly, a com-
mercial traveller, aged thirty-seven, in whose breast a Red
Guardsman suddenly planted a bayonet, and a student,
aged twenty, who was shot without the least reason.
At 12 o'clock in the night the whole city was proclaimed

74

to be in a state of strike. Towards morning two trains
arrived from St. Petersburg, one packed full of Russian
Red Guardsmen, the other with firearms and ammuni-
tion. Referring to a telegram from the Government of
Russia, the soldiers demanded that all the Protective
Corps should be disarmed, and the arms delivered up
to the Red Guard. The latter was then to operate
according to the orders of the representative of the
Russian Government in Finland, the so-called Rayon
Committee.

On the Thursday the strike reigned. At a station
near Viborg two telegraph functionaries had been shot,
and the station-master at Viborg, who had been arrested
earlier, was found in his cell with his throat cut, an
equally meaningless and cruel murder on a man of fifty.
The number of the prisoners was now ninety-three, and
the Red " played " kindly with them. Now they had
to run the gauntlet of two rows of Red and Russians,
who struck them with the butt ends of their rifles, now
they were arranged in rank and file and counted " to
see how much shot was needed," etc.

On the last days of the week, from the 24th to the
27th January, the Red held undisputed sway at Viborg.
They marched through the streets, made arrests, and
searched houses and committed some outrages, as, for
instance, when they fired at a sleigh in which a man
was taking his wife to the maternity hospital. The
man was wounded in the head, the woman in the abdomen,
and the child was born directly after. But the move-
ment had now spread through the whole of the country.
In the east and the west, in Karelen and 0sterbotten,
the Protective Corps were masters, and quite calmly
disarmed smaller Russian and Red divisions. But in
the south the Red have been seized by the intoxication
of war. They occupy the railway stations, collect

75

arms, beg machine guns and cannon of the Russians,
They get all they want, and concentrate their forces
round Helsingfors. Now the moment for the revolution
has come.

During these days the Government laboured
strenuously at keeping the Russian soldiers outside
the conflict. It repeatedly approached the representative
of the Russian Government, the Rayon Committee, with
written communications, appeals, wishes, and sugges-
tions. The committee were obliging and sympathetic,
but did nothing. It evidently seemed quite natural to
them that the Russian soldiers harried an independent,
neutral country as they did. As nothing helped, the
Government at last, on the 25th and the 26th of January,
addressed itself directly to the Russian Government
by a telegram, and by written communications to the
Governments of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France,
England, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Greece, and
by an appeal to the Finnish people. These three
documents ran as follows : —
" To the Council of People's Commissioners.

" During the last days there has been committed
murder, incendiarism, and a number of disturbances in
several places in Finland, in which soldiers staying here
have taken part, not only by protecting those elements
in the people that have caused the disorder, but even
by themselves taking part in the acts of violence which
it had not been possible to carry into effect without
the assistance given by the soldiers. As it has been
stated that the deliberate participation of the Russian
soldiers herein is said to be founded on directions and
orders given by the military authorities, Finland's
Government, who consider such behaviour on the part
of the soldiers as a flagrant violation of Finland's inter-
nationally acknowledged independence, have resolved to

76

apply to the Council of People's Commissioners with
the demand that the latter will immediately take effective
measures for the prevention of the participation of the
soldiers in the deeds of violence against Finnish citizens,
as well as their further interference in the internal affairs
of the country.

"The President of the Government,

" Svinhufvud."
" To the Foreign Powers.

" Although the Russian Government have, on the
4th instant, officially acknowledged Finland's political
independence, no effective measures have yet been taken
for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the country.
On the contrary, Russia still supports numerous divisions
of troops in Finland which, simultaneously with con-
suming the scanty food of the country, are not only a
hindrance to the maintenance of order and security in
the country, but also, in co-operation with the most
turbulent elements of the population, commit murder,
incendiarism, and other outrages. This circumstance
receives its peculiar significance not only by a few
misguided soldiers or divisions of soldiers taking part
in these crimes, but also by the fact that the representa-
tives of the Russian Government resident here directly
contribute to the prolongation of this state of affairs,
intolerable to an independent country, by giving
permission for the distribution of firearms and ammuni-
tion belonging to the Russian State, to the masses that
take part in the disturbances, and by preventing the
establishment of an effective police force obedient to the
orders of the Government. Thus, according to com-
munications received by the Government of Finland,
the commissioner for military affairs of the Russian
Government on the 23rd inst. issued orders for the
soldiers stationed at Viborg to disarm the Protective

77

Corps which had arrived in the city to maintain order,
and to arm with their weapons that element among the
working-men which had in those days started sanguinary
monster riots in the said city.

" Finally, simultaneously with negotiations carried on,
it has been orally communicated to the members of the
Government by the Sailors' Committee at Helsingfors,
that the Russian military in this country is interested
in carrying out a social revolution in Finland, and for
this purpose ready to support the revolutionary bands
with arms against the lawful order of society and the
Protective Corps that support it.

" As the behaviour of the Russian Government is an
outrage against Finland as an independent State, the
Government of Finland will accordingly bring to the
notice of the Powers that have acknowledged Finland's
independence their emphatic protest.

" On behalf of the Government of Finland,

"P. E. Svinhufvud."

" To the People of Finland.

" The blood of fellow-citizens which has flown during
these days forces the Government of this country to
appeal to the People.

" Our People has recently seen its dearest hopes
realised. It has attained political independence which
has already been acknowledged by several of the States
of Europe. No external influence will now hinder the
Finnish people's possibilities of development. The
supreme power in the country is exercised by the Lantdag
and the Government responsible to it. Our political,
as well as our communal, constitution is democratic.

M Unfortunately, there are those who will not rest
satisfied with this way of peace, legality and conviction,
but proceed by other means in order to reach their goal.

78

Through Russian agency the thought has been spread
among our people that in Finland, too, a democratic
evolution is only possible through an internal revolution.
Such elements among our people, in whom such a thought
has been inculcated, have been armed by Russian agency,
and thus our country has been brought to the verge of
civil war. On the part of the military here stationed
during these last days, the most flagrant interference in
the internal affairs of Finland has taken place, revolting
outrages against the life, property and liberty of Finnish
citizens have been committed. And, what is most to
be regretted, some Finnish citizens have on their part
incited the Russian troops to this, and together with
them raised their weapons against Finnish fellow-citizens,
and together with them committed outrages and crimes.

M Although they have obtained power from the
Lantdag to work for the establishment of a strong police
force, the Government of Finland have not the means
to maintain peace and order in the country, as long as
the Russian troops here resident act as a threat to all
peaceful life by supporting the felonious elements in
the country.

" In view of this the Government of Finland have
considered it their duty to enter a protest before the
Government of Russia against the interference of the
Russian troops resident in Finland in the internal affairs
of Finland, and again to demand the withdrawal of these
troops from Finnish territory. In like manner the
Government have considered it their duty to forward
to the Foreign Powers, which have acknowledged our
independence, a note protesting against the presence of
the undisciplined Russian troops and against their
outrages.

" The Government of Finland find it necessary also
to appeal to all Finnish fellow-citizens. Only by a

79

determined maintenance of order can we keep our
recently acquired independence ; disturbances of the
order may either entirely destroy the independence and
liberty of our people, bring our country under foreign
rule, or expose it to dismemberment. Everyone who
disturbs the order is a foe to the Finnish people and its
independence.

" But still more degrading to all our people is the fact
that the inhabitants of the country enter into connection
with the foreign troops, and together with them commit
outrages against their own fellow-citizens. Such
behaviour is a crime against the people of Finland,
and at the same time a crime against the whole order
of society. They are directed against the Lantdag,
which holds the supreme power in our country. If such
behaviour gains the day our people will disappear from
the ranks of the peoples of culture, the State of Finland
from among the lawfully ordered States.

" The distress of our native country forces us to
appeal to you all. We hope that every Finnish citizen
will at the present moment be ready for the sacrifices
that may be required by the threatened position of our
country and our people, of each individually and all in
common. The aim of the concerted endeavours of all
should wholly and solely be the maintenance of civil
peace. In no circumstances can inflammatory acts or
reprisals be allowed, nor any private action opposed to the
regulations of the Force for the Maintenance of Order.

" Fellow-citizens ! Join hands in order to protect
the peace of your homes, the life of those nearest and
dearest to you, property, personal liberty, and invio-
lability. To maintain order is to defend the independence
and the future of the Finnish People.

" The Senate of Finland."

But the leaders of the Labour Party ? Did they not

8o

return to their senses at the last moment ? Even if
they could no longer stop the advance of the Red gangs,
could they not at least keep aloof, warn and protest ?
They did nothing of all this. Quite the opposite. On
the 24th January the Party Council issue a proclamation
to the Russian soldiers, the chief contents of which in
all their bombast run as follows : —

" Russian Comrades !

" From the bourgeois of our country a constant
provocative agitation and a stream of filth have during
the last months been directed against the Russian
revolutionary military garrisoned in Finland. This
agitation has exasperated the Russians as well as their
Finnish comrades. The revolutionary democracy of
Finland and its organisations are overwhelmed with
the like abuse. The bourgeoisie papers want to throw
the responsibility for the outrages committed against
individuals or groups that do not understand the tenets
of the revolution on to the shoulders of the revolutionary
soldiers and labourers, though these misdeeds are in
reality the result of the civil corruption. They therefore
brazenly exaggerate what has happened, colour it, and
invent lies. All their thoughts run on insulting and
blackening the revolution, thus to prepare the soil for
a counter-revolution. We understand that this must
of course greatly affront the revolutionary Russian
military in Finland, which, adhering firmly and with
urideviating constancy to its principles, has acknowledged
the political independence of Finland. We, the repre-
sentatives of the working-men of Finland, fight staunchly
with you against such a false and provocative stream of
insults provoked by the bourgeois of Finland, and express
our distinct disapproval of the counter-revolutionary
efforts of the bourgeoisie press.

8i

" The Social Democracy are fighting indefatigably
against militarism and our Party Meeting has distinctly
made known that Finland, even as an independent
State, does not require any standing army. Neither
must, of course, Russian military be maintained in
Finland as soon as its withdrawal is possible, and at any
not after the conclusion of peace. But the labourers
of Finland have not joined the bourgeois in their pro-
vocative demands that the military should be withdrawn
immediately, in spite of the distressful shortage of food
reigning in the country, which, of course, is further
increased for the labourers by the presence of the military
here," etc. etc.

It is a peculiar logic that runs through this document.
The anti-militarists want to keep the soldiers, the starving
ones wish to keep those back who are a drain on the
supplies, and they who in the first place have prevented
the realisation of Finland's liberty are greeted as those
who have bestowed freedom on the country.

On the 26th January the Party Meeting appoint an
" Executive Revolutionary Committee," " whose decisions
and orders the organised labourers of Finland and their
Guard Corps should obey." And in the leading paper,
" TyGmies," article upon article is produced in order to
inflame the masses. The Government of the country
is only mentioned in quotation marks, and about its
proclamation to the whole people cited above it is said : —

M When the appeal of the ' Government of Fin-
land ' became known in Labour circles it roused
an unspeakable bitterness, an unspeakable hatred.
And no wonder. For its contents are precisely so
criminal, so brazen, so brutal, and so sanguinary.
And there they are derided who have done the
noblest deed for the good of our People. In

F

82

acknowledgment of all that our Russian comrades
have done for the liberty of our People, for our
independence, for our liberation from oppression
and oppressors, they are flouted and called criminals,
and on them is thrown the blame of all the shameful
outrages for which our ruling class is itself to blame."

And now what in the last instance did the authority
do which before all could have mitigated the consequences
of the now unavoidable civil war, what did the Govern-
ment of Russia do to prevent their troops from fighting
against Finland's lawful force for the maintenance of
order ?

When the representative of the Finnish Government
on the 26th January applied to the " Commissioner for
Military Affairs," i.e., the Minister for War, Pokrovski,
he stated : " According to information received at
St. Petersburg, the social revolution in Finland has
begun. In consequence of her principles, it is the duty
of Russia to support the proletariat of Finland in its
struggle against the Finnish bourgeoisie. The Com-
missioner has sent the Finnish Red Guard assistance in
Finland, and will continue to do so."

So then the die was cast. Finland's people had to
choose between destruction in the Russo-Red maelstrom,
or a fight for life and liberty. She chose the latter
alternative, and was victorious. But the fight which
went before the victory was cruel and sanguinary. This
is made clear to us by a quick glance at the rule of violence
of the Red during the following months.

THE INSURRECTION

i RED AND WHITE: GENERAL
CHARACTERISTICS.

In the preceding pages a summary has been given of
the events before the outbreak of the insurrection. This
was necessary in order to show the causes of the Red
revolution. With all brevity they may be summarised
as follows : —

As a background, the twenty years of Russian oppres-
sion from which the community had suffered, as well as the
Russian revolutionary movement, with the fanatical and
Utopian views of which the Finnish Labour Movement
had been inoculated.

That is to say : Russian infection.

As chief cause, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia,
which turned the heads of the Labour Party, who lusted
after power, and so tempted them to follow the example.

That is to say : Russian infection again.

As a largely contributing cause that the movement
was not even stopped on the verge of the abyss of civil
war, the Russian Bolshevik Government's combined
plans of a reconquest of liberated provinces, and a social
conquest of the world.

That is to say : Russian infection once more.

The programme of, and part played by, the Labour
Party was much more simple ; they fought solely for
the power or rather to actually get to show and feci
their power. The majority in parliament in the spring
and summer of 19 17 was not enough for them. Strikes
without number were organised. When later they lost

F 2

84

their majority in the Lantdag, the party went over to
" unparliamentary means of force," and created the Red
Guard. And when the activities of the latter met with
opposition from the Government, the Government was
overthrown. Though the party did not intend to carry
out a social revolution, they did not scruple to employ
anything Russian Bolshevism could offer them of fine
phrases, catch words, and other means of agitation as
weapons.

From the previous statement, it would appear, too,
why a revolution, an insurrection which lacked all ideal
merit, which had no other purpose than that of dragging
Finland into an Eastern chaos, and giving the power
to a small set of political adventurers, why this revolution
found the number of adherents it really did : the Red
numbered more than 100,000 men.

The reason was that the masses did not at all under-
stand the significance of the events they had been drawn
into. Everything came little by little. Strike had
followed on strike, disturbance on disturbance. This
was " revolution." The lawful authorities of the country
had not been able to check the lawlessness. They stood
powerless. So then it was the " people " that had the
power. And the attempts of the upper class to stop
the manifestations of this curious popular rule were then
a " shameful attempt at a State-stroke and a counter-
revolution." It must be beaten down. Therefore, one
entered the Red Guard, one armed oneself, and therefore
one was willing to fight against the " slaughtering corps."
It was a question of honour to serve the efforts of the
proletariat and safeguard its position of power — all
scruples were silenced by the mighty word " revolution."
This word was also sufficient to quiet conscience if the
sanguinary deeds of the comrades were felt as a heavy
burden. And if that was not sufficient, there was the

85

magic formula " provocation " ; if even this did not suffice,
then the magic word " butchers " never failed of eff<

If, therefore, the Government wanted to prevent the
" just endeavours" of the proletariat, would "deprive
the Labouring class of the fruits of its struggle," nothing
was easier than to remove this Government. Already
twice the Government of Finland had been overthrown
by revolution, in November, 1905, and in March, 1917.
Each time the whole people had rejoiced. Nothing, it
was supposed, could prevent it from being overthrown a
third time, as it was said that it was " black " and
" counter-revolutionary," and an enemy to liberty, now,
as the two former times. One revolution or another,
one master or another, the proletariat had once got into
power, and this power was to be defended and asserted.

The insurrection was the unavoidable consequence
of all that had happened. [Therefore, with much the
greater portion the question did not arise : Am I right
in rising against the lawful authorities ? No question
arose at all — except among the corporations standing
as it were immediately between the " proletariat " and
the " citizens," among railway, post office, and custom-
house officials, the staff of the tramways, cabdrivers,
etc. Here a great division reigned, and here it was
mainly dependent on how strongly the individual had
been influenced by the agitation of the Labour Press,
whether he was " Red " or " White." On the other hand,
it must be noted that the number of working-men, who
more and more clearly perceived the corruption of the
rule of violence, was considerable. It was hardly the
revolution itself, the overthrowing of the Government
itself, which made them hesitate, but it was the sight
it the advance of all the low elements within tluir own
organisation ; it was the many outrages which made them
keep back a little. The position of these working-men

86

was extremely difficult, for a refusal to join the ranks of
the Red was dangerous if once they belonged to the
co-operating trade unions. With threats and violence
they were forced into the movement, and those who
resisted compulsion as long as possible were disposed of
with a couple of shots.

It may seem incredible that the greater part of the
working-men had such a clouded conception of the
situation. But nevertheless it was the case. All talk of
starvation and oppression by capitalists being causes of
the movement is false, for the insurrection did not break
out because a sweated proletariat wanted to achieve an
existence worthy of human beings, but because by the
force of circumstances the masses had succeeded in
establishing a dictatorship of violence, a terrorism which
its leaders would not let go. And if we rightly consider
how abnormal the state of affairs in Finland had been
for the last twenty years, if we recollect that the whole
people for two decades had aspired towards one single
aim : liberation from political oppression, then we
understand that in the soul of the people there slum-
bered mighty leanings towards such a thing as a struggle
for liberty, a rising of the people, a revolution under
any form. These were chords that vibrated to the lightest
touch ; it was a smouldering fire which could be brought
to flame up in a fury the instant anything inflammable
came near it.

The leaders of the Labour Party were guilty of the
greatest of crimes when they directed this stream of
yearning for liberty against their own countrymen,
against the first Government of independent Finland,
against the most democratic of all parliaments. When
they pointed out those who had fought in the first rank
against Russian oppression, and were the most pro-
nounced democrats and most eager fighters for Finland's

87

liberty, pointed them out as the tools of Tsarism, black
reactionaries, the executioners of the people and more
to that effect — then they were guilty of a baseness, a
meanness, and an infamy which can never be forgiven.
For it was done against their better knowledge ; it was
an undisguised and conscious lie. What they built upon
in the last instance was the old thirst for liberty among
the masses which mainly concentrated in hatred against
those in power, whoever they were. Therefore the social
questions played only a negligible part in the whole
tragedy.

If these, broadly speaking, were the motives of the
Red, those of the White may be still more briefly
summarised. White, before all, were those who under-
stood that Finland must be plucked from out of the
whirlpool of the Russian revolution, so as not to be
destroyed, who perceived the difference between a
Western state of culture, law and order, and the Eastern
chaos of Russia, who comprehended into what an abyss
a proletariat dictatorship, like that of the Bolsheviks,
hurled a country and a people. To these belonged also
all " bourgeois," all the " cultivated " classes, the whole
" intelligentsia " — apart from pecuniary circumstances.
The Red met with complete, unanimous resistance from
board-school teachers, subordinate functionaries, clerks,
technicists and the like. Again, all those were White
who had come under the direct rule of violence of the
Red. To these belonged all peasants, the majority of
the population of the country. They were not without
the universal yearning for liberty, but with them it had
remained healthy. They felt the brutal violence
intensely, whether it came from above or from below,
and they reacted against it. On the whole, the country
population was exceedingly sparsely represented among
the Red. Only the random, unemployed population

88

that had been employed at the fortification work had
joined them in great numbers, and in like manner the
greater part of the working-men from the centres of
industry ; but the following among farmhands and
crofters was very slight, and — if they joined the Red —
they mostly confined themselves to taking over " the
power " in their parish, playing at district magistrates,
police and parish council, and ordering about their former
masters.

Hardly either to the peasants did the bold step of
overthrowing the Government become decisive. The
many months of mob-rule had brought them to despair.
All ruffians, all Russian soldiers, all wretches and
criminals freely made havoc of the country. There was
no possibility of order and safety if one did not oneself
take up arms and suppress the Russian terrorism. The
White fought for liberty, law and order, a war of defence
against all destructive, disintegrating forces. Their war
was a war of liberation, not a struggle for power.

Plainer, perhaps, than by anything else, the Russian
colouring of the Red is shown by the fact that they
were entire strangers to such conceptions as law and
order. Their whole rule bore the impress of the East,
with contempt of the right of others, of discipline and
self-control. In this they differed completely from all
Western " Socialism.' ' They had the purely Russian
mania for giving orders to all the four corners of the
earth, for writing ukases, manifestoes and decrees —
which were never obeyed. They had acquired the
Russian manner of intoxicating themselves in speeches
and negotiations through long nights, of talking and
smoking themselves into an over-excited frame of mind,
of living on the enthusiasm fomented in monster meetings
— on the whole, of playing with the fluctuating moods of
an irresponsible crowd as the wind plays with the autumn

89

leaves. Their life was to be one ecstacy of excitement,
one intoxication of power. Motor-cars dashing about,
telephones ringing frantically, heaps of telegrams, clicking
type-writers, orders here and orders there, food snatched
at any moment, an hour's sleep anywhere. What was
order, what was cleanliness, what was all quiet and
unpretending everyday life — nothing. To rule and reign,
live in a fever, throw all middle-class ideals to the winds,
that was the thing to do. The revolution of the Ri !
was as foreign as possible to our character, as it was
foreign to any deliberate, carefully planned, coolly carried-
out revolution. It built on the hypnotism of the mass
meetings, it was a riot, no conspiracy.

In the following pages details and facts will supplement
this characterisation. It is not intended to give any
historical account of the course of the civil war, but only
to describe certain aspects of the Red rule as it shaped
itself in the south of Finland, and briefly to touch on
the outbreak of the insurrection and its final suppression

2. THE OUTBREAK OF THE INSURRECTION.

On Saturday, the 26th January, it was clear to
everybody that the Red intended to proceed to serious
action. How far they aimed was not known, whether
the intention was only to go for all the Protective Corps
in the whole country, or to attack the Government
also, was uncertain. The Red bands were concentrated
at Helsingfors, where Russian Red Guardsmen and
marines from St. Petersburg also arrived. On the
Saturday evening the weak Protective Corps retreated
from the city in order to avoid hopeless fighting in the
streets, and some of the members of the Government
went to Wasa in 0sterbotten in order to be able to sustain
the lawful government there if the worst came to the
worst.

go

On the morning of Sunday the 27th the activities of
the Red began. From the Russian arsenals in the
Sveaborg fortress numbers of rifles and a lot of ammuni-
tion were transported into the town, and the Red marched
forth and took possession of the railway station, the
police offices, the telegraph offices, the telephone exchange
and the printing offices of the bourgeoisie press. The
district prison received orders to keep 150 cells ready
for the prisoners of the Red. A number of house-searches
and arrests were made. The Red were obviously waiting
for the Protective Corps to make a sortie, so that they
could honourably conquer the city with arms. They
knew very well that the Protective Corps was rather
inferior in number to their own forces. That they
expected a fight is seen amongst other things from the
proclamation which was affixed to all posts and trees,
and which, verbatim, ran as follows : —

" To the Inhabitants of Helsingfors.

" All the peaceful inhabitants of Helsingfors are
urged to keep out of the streets during the fight with
the slaughtering guard, or the consequence will be that
they may be shot down.

" The Working-men's Revolutionary Guard desire
to avoid the shedding of blood of innocent persons.

" Helsingfors, 27.1.1918."

" The Working-men's Executive Committee."

But as no hostile forces appeared, shots were fired
in the air and " order " energetically maintained. In
the night a search for the members of the Government
was started, but they were not found in their houses.
Early on the Monday morning all Government offices
were occupied, and a proclamation declared the city
to be in a state of strike. At last the public learnt
what was meant by all this, when later in the day an

9i

Appeal to Revolution to the People of Finland was
distributed. It read as follows : —

" The hour for the great Revolution has struck for
Finland's Labour Class.

" To-day the working-men of the capital have boldly
overthrown the headquarters of the dark rule of few who
began a sanguinary war against their own people.

" The members of the criminal senate prepared an
atrocious civil war, even in the capital of the country,
an invidious assault on the organised working-men of
Finland. At the same time they have been guilty of
such unblushing treason that they have asked foreign
monarchical governments to send bands of murderers
to butcher Finland's working-men. The life and liberty
of our People is hereby placed in the greatest danger.

" Now all power has been taken from this butchering
senate. Orders have been issued that the criminal
members of this senate are to be imprisoned wherever
they are met with, as the prison has already long been
their proper place.

" The working class of the country are to take all
governing power in Finland into their own reliable hands ,

" Thus the working class have ultimately been forced
to rise in order to save themselves and our country from
the disaster and distress which the criminal capitalist
system has cast our People into. The intrigues of the
uncanny and dangerous Senate and its tools have been
exposed. In order to usurp the power in the State, that
power which — as it is self-evident — ought to belong to
the People itself, the Senate have committed one breach
of the law after another. The chief aim of all these
intrigues has been to put down the Labour Movement of
the whole country, to destroy all progress of democracy
and bury the suffering People's hopes of a real work of
progress.

92

" But Finland's Working Class will never become
thralls under such a terrible yoke of reaction. Such a
heinous attempt at a State-stroke must break down
ignominiously. And complete oppression has now begun.
This dangerous, reactionary oppression force must be
rooted out and rendered innocuous.

" The supreme revolutionary organ of Finland's

working-men, which has been appointed D37 the leaders of

the Social-Democratic Party, does hereby announce that —

" ' All revolutionary power in Finland now belongs

to the. organised working-men and their revolutionary

organ.'

" A Social-Democratic, revolutionary Government will
now instantly be formed. At the very first opportunity
the names of the members of this Government will be
made public.

" The aim is not only to put in new men in the place
of the former, but to overthrow the whole bureaucratic
system.

" Now our organisations and Guard Corps all over
the country must, each according to the best of their
ability, fulfil their duty to the revolution. Within our
ranks we must maintain a strict, revolutionary order.

" Russian soldiers should be well received everywhere
as we know that Russian comrades are the friends of the
revolutionary working-men.

" A general strike will not be necessary everywhere
for the success of the revolution. The revolutionary
working-men must themselves decide in their organisations
where this remedy is to be employed. But, for the sake
of the revolution, according to our opinion, a general
strike should at once be proclaimed in Helsingfors.

" The working-men must, where it is deemed useful
and fitting, take over the leadership of communal affairs
and other offices.

93

" No one must fail or give up ! No long negotations
with armed perfidious enemies ! The victory of the
working-men must be a complete victory !

" Peaceful fellow-citizens who do not wish to support
the enemies of the working-man have nothing to fear
from the revolution. Humble folks in the country and
in the cities must not spread such lies as that the
working-men wish to get hold of their property. On the
contrary, the victory of the working class may also better
their position in society. The power of the working-men
is a just power, which always tries to prevent unnecessary
violence, and to mitigate the sufferings of innocent men and
women. But the armed handy-men of the overthrown
Senate must be pursued without mere}'. Would that
those, who have treacherously been tempted, at once
throw down their weapons now they have come to recog-
nise that it has been hoped to make them fight against
the noble cause of the working People.

" The revolution of the working-men is magnanimous
but hard. Hard towards the enemies of the People,
but a helpful support to all that are oppressed and
suffering.

" Look to the revolutionary power of the working-men
with confidence ! At the present moment a fight for the
>wer is going on in many parts. But irresistibly it
will carry victory to our colours !

1 It is our firm conviction that the working-men of
>ur country, the present as well as the coming generations,
will truly bless this revolution, which is to take Finland
into a new and happier time.

"The Executive Committee of the

Working-men of Finland,

" Eero Haapalainen."

Simultaneously with this, a number of " instructions "
were issued with regard to the duty of assisting the Red

94

troops, etc. In these Finland is also declared to be in
*' a state of militant revolution," a situation the import
of which has always remained obscure. But as Finland
already during the whole of the war had been both in
a state of siege and a state of war, something new was
required to make an impression. The whole day long
motor-cars drove about the town packed full of armed
Red Guardsmen and Russians. They fired into the air
and at the walls of the houses. Also the patrolling Red
Guardsmen fired volley upon volley with their rifles.
Still, only two persons were wounded. The whole was
a faithful copy of the incidents of the March revolution :
this was the exact way in which it was supposed a revolu-
tion should proceed. An attempt was also made on that
day to imitate the tactics used at the murders of the
officers. The chief rate collector of the city was arrested
in his office, but liberated late in the evening. In order
that he might reach his home unmolested, he was
provided with an escort of two Red Guardsmen.
When they reached a side street, the two " protectors "
abandoned the prisoner they were to protect. The rate
collector heard the click of a gun, and turned his head.
In the same instant the shot fell. The bullet entered
at the back of the neck and went out at the ear. The
rate collector fell down and the Red fled. The wounded
man was found in the street, was carefully nursed, and
eventually recovered.

On the Tuesday the new Government and their pro-
gramme were made known to the public. Of course,
the Government was formed on Lenin lines ; of course,
" Commissioners," not ministers, ruled. And over the
Government was a Central Council — as in Russia — which
was to control the measures suggested by the Com-
missioners. In reality, it was four of the members of
the Government who ruled everything, four already

95

well-known party men. First, the chief of the Govern-
ment, Kullervo Manner, who had been president of the
Lantdag during the summer, and who had begun his
political career in the first years of the century by going
the errands of the Russian rule of oppression. An
ambitious struggler. In the second place, the food
conti oiler, Oskari Tokoi, an adventurer of the purest
water, formerly a miner in America, later the trusted
man of the party, once president of the Lantdag, chief
of the Government in the spring and summer of 1917.
A good intellect, but without any backbone or character.
In the third place, Yrjo Sirola, once a student like
Manner, journalist, party-leader, now Minister for Foreign
Affairs. A quiet-mannered fanatic, and fairly efficient
statesman. Finally, Eero Haapalainen, expelled student,
a violent and brutal person, who had had many battles
with the police, as he often got drunk, but never could
learn how to carry his drink, and so always got exceed-
ingly ferocious and eager to fight. Now Minister of the
interior and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Guard.
The programme of the Government of course compre-

Ihends a lot of promises of reform. But nothing is found
about the constitutent assembly which had before been
so energetically demanded. Nor does the programme
contain anything about a coining panellation of land —
a considerable divergence that from the programme of
the Russian social revolution. But for the rest, it was
not a little that was promised. The reforms were briefly
these : A complete alteration of the administration of the
State, the crushing of the bureaucracy for ever and
aye, a chastisement once for all of the wilfulness of the
tribunals, an alteration of the whole form of government
on democratic lines, in order to safeguard the rights of
the working-man, old-age and invalid insurance, the

96

the emancipation of crofters and small tenants from the
rule of the landlord, the bank funds under the control
of the community, and the taking over and working by
the community, of "the great plundering enterprises"
for the profit of the community without any regard to
private property. All these reforms, it further said,
could be carried through only by revolutionary measures
taken by the revolutionary organs.

The first official action of the new Commission was
to send a hearty greeting to the Government at St. Peters-
burg, next they informed the governments of the
states, which had acknowledged the independence of
Finland, of the revolution. By this act, according to
the opinion of the Commissioners, the lawful Government
of the independent Finland of ten weeks past had been
removed, and the country had been subjected to the
dictatorship of the proletariat.

But things did not run as smoothly as all that. The
vanished Government came to light again at Wasa,
somewhat decimated certainly, but still a threatening
phantom to the Commissioners. Quite a new figure
appeared on the scene at the same time, a personality
about whom only few knew that he had been the leader
of the organisation of the Protective Corps at 0sterbotten
for the last few weeks. This was General Gustaf
Mannerheim. It is difficult to describe the rejoicings
called forth by his first bulletin, which was secretly made
known through Helsingfors, among all who had studied
the revolutionary appeal of the Red with disgust, and
regarded the shooting gangs of the Red savages in the
streets with abhorrence. There was a new note in
Mannerheim's telegram, a note of hope and confidence
in the sound core of the people, which gave glimpses
of the fairest vistas. Now both the Russian and the
Red were to be driven out, now the country was to be

97

torn from out of the talons of the revolution. The
telegram in which the population of South Finland,
which had been brought to the verge of despair,
found all these promising communications ran as
follows : —

" The outrages, pillage and murder committed among
the peaceful population by the lowest elements in the
community together with the Russian soldieis, among
which outrages especially the occurrences at Viborg
have excited the fierce indignation of the liberty-loving
peasants at 0sterbotten, have obliged me to disarm the
Russian troops at Wasa, Lappo, Ylistaro, Seinajoki,
Jakobstad, Gamlakarleby and other places.

"If the Red Guardsmen do not submit to the lawful
Government, the exasperated peasant troops of this
country will be obliged with arms in hand to pass
judgment on the traitors.

u A guarantee of personal safety is given to the 5,000
disarmed Russian soldiers, and they will be liberated
as soon as an arrangement to that effect has been come
to between Finland and Russia.

" The Commander-in-Chief of the Protective Corps,

" General Mannerheim."

So then there was a White army, as well as a Red
one. Not for one instant was the final victory of the
White doubted.

But the great thing was to offer resistance to the
Red even in those parts where they had appropriated
the power. A call was made for a general strike
among the functionaries, and it was carried through
without the least disagreement. Only the physicians and
the rationing departments continued work. The banks
were kept closed, and the Employers' Union stopped
all manufacturing business. Life became extremely

G

g8

complicated. The Red gave chase to the members of
the Government and the Lantdag, to the officials and
bankers in order to arrest them. All these and all who
had had anything to do with the Protective Corps had
to keep themselves concealed. They stayed with one
another, moved sometimes, let their beards grow, and
neglected appearances. Disguised thus, the pursued
could sometimes take a little walk in the evening.
After nine in the evening it was forbidden to go
out in Helsingfors. Nor did anybody care to, for
every evening there was the sound of shooting in the
streets.

Perhaps the worst of all was the absolute uncertainty
Red Finland was completely isolated from the outer
world, and only had connection with Lenin's St. Petersburg.
No Scandinavian newspapers, no letters, no enlightening
telegrams got through. Rumours were afloat, and the
only sources of news were the newspapers of the Red.
They were not to be trusted. The cruelties of the
" butchers " and their enormous losses in the fights
were the chief contents ; from abroad the only news
obtained was of the sort that the Kaiser had been
deposed, that revolution was breaking out both in France
and Norway, that the power of the Bolsheviks in Russia
was increasing day by day. People sat nervous and idle
in their homes, only this single thought revolving in their
minds : " When will Mannerheim come ? "

In the meanwhile the Red were at work. They
searched houses, made arrests and seizures. They had
to fill all the Government offices with their own people,
and organise their army. The war operations became
the centre of the efforts both of the White and the Red.
The result, of course, was dependent on them. There
may therefore be some reason for pausing to look a
little at the army of the Red.

99

3. THE RED ARMY.

In order to become incorporated in the Red Guard, the
following things were required : Class feeling, a knowledge
of tfcfl methods of the Social Democracy, and being a
member of the Labour Party. The Guard was thus
a pure class army. Every local labour association
formed its own Red Guard. The result of this was small
groups without number, a lot of " staffs," and a number
of " commanders-in-chief." It was, of course, the
lnhntinn that a homogeneous organisation should be
fmid i I ll< statutes speak of brigades as well as
divisions and army corps — but it never got so far. In
the larger towns both companies and battalions were
formed, but regiments are never mentioned. On the
Russo-revolutionary model the men constituted the
supreme authority. That is to say, that the orders
issued by the officers were made subject to discussion
at the meetings of the men, and could either be sanctioned
or vetoed. In like manner, the meetings could remove
unpopular chiefs and choose others instead. Any uniform
or consistent system in this respect seems not, however,
to have existed. At one time it is the officers, at another
the men who make the decisions.

The original object of the Red Guard was plainly
enough purely local operations. Each division was to
take over and keep the power in its own part of the
country. It was therefore an extremely unpleasant
surprise when it proved that the White intended to
occupy the whole northern part of the country, and that
it became necessary to take the field in the middle of the
winter. This would entail claims on the commissariat
which it could not meet, and it also made greater demands
on the men than had been intended. In spite of all
the Russian help with arms and ammunition, the Red
army were quite at a loss at the change of programme .

G2

100

Fortunately — for the White army, too, suffered from an
extremely critical complaint : it went almost without
anus to its gigantic task.

The important question of the conduct of war-opera-
tions on the part of the Red was most closely connected
with the question of how the Russian troops would
stand. Were they to observe neutrality, and leave the
country as quickly as possible, or were they openly to
side with the Red ? The answer came quickly enough.

On the 30th January the Russian Post and Telegraph
Minister pays a visit to the Red Government at Helsing-
fors, and there observes as follows : —

" The Russian Brother Government hope that the
Finnish brethren will carry the struggle they have
commenced to a happy ending, and promise their full
aid in the war against the bourgeoisie, which belong to
the international class of sweaters, and are in consequence
the enemies of the people." This official utterance must
undoubtedly be designated as a declaration of war from
the Russian Government.

Already on the 28th January, however, the troops
that were in Finland had issued their own declaration
of war. These troops constituted the 42nd Russian
Army Corps, whose staff was at Viborg. The staff had,
however, been replaced by an Army Corps Commission,
and it was this commission which on the above-mentioned
day issued an order to all divisions, the first paragraph
of which ran as follows : " From and with the 28th of this
instant the troops of the 42nd Army Corps are regarded
as being at war with the civic White Guard of Finland."

There was, however, yet another authority which
was to have a word to say in the matter. This was the
" Rayon Committee of the Army, Navy, and Russian
Working-men in Finland," which on the 4th December
had been appointed sole representative of the Russian

101

Government in Finland by Lenin. The military section
of this Committee regarded itself as the supreme Russian
military authority in this country. It did not issue
any declaration of war, but on the 28th January the
section orders the 42nd Army Corps to commence
decisive operations against the White Guard.

The leadership of the Red Guard Corps was, as it was
inevitable! placed in Russian hands. For expert military
knowledge on Finnish side there was none. Already
on the 15th January the " Commander-in-Chief of
West Finland's Army," Michael Stepanovitsh Svet-
shnikoff, speaks of the Red Guard Corps as auxiliary
troops to the Russian corps, and the Finnish Red are all
under the leadership of the Russian district chiefs. Svetsh-
nikoff was later appointed commander-in-chief of the
Finnish Red Guard Corps, so that these for all practical
purposes were amalgamated with the Russia troops.

The supreme war command thus consisted of Russian
officers. It was Russian troops that made war against
the Protective Corps. And telegraphic reports of the
war operations were regularly dispatched to the Russian
Minister for War, the Russian Government, and the
commandants of the fortresses of Kronstadt and Reval.
From this it was very plainly seen that the Bolshevik
Government of Russia intended, by the aid of the Red
Guard Corps, to reconquer Finland. And this also
compels one to think of this Government when one asks
oneself where the real mainspring of the outbreak ot the
Finnish revolution is to be sought. And for the rest
one cannot help comparing this outbreak with the
simultaneous great strikes in Austria, and those which
broke out some days later in Germany. Elaborate and
highly-coloured accounts of them were given in the
Finnish Labour Press.

It was, however, impossible for the Russian leaders

102

to carry through an organised, properly planned conduct
of the war. The troops were too undisciplined for that.
Besides, the army had been ordered to demobilise before
the insurrection broke out. A great deal of the soldiers
wanted to return to Russia, and were disinclined to go
to war again. Demobilisation was, however, prevented
in all sorts of ways, and the result was more often than
not that those who had obtained leave stayed where
they were, but now as " volunteers/' and on higher pay.
From Russia crowds came streaming in of the Russian
Red armies raised there, and from documents and reports
the presence of at least the following Russian formations
in Finland may be established as a fact : the 42nd
Army Corps, a Lettish army, volunteer divisions (con-
sisting of men on leave), the National Socialistic Red
Army, the Red Labour and Peasant Army, and finally
the Anarchist Corps, consisting of 300 Marines. As,
besides, the Finnish Red Guard received Russian
volunteers, and all its special troops consisted of Russians,
it will be understood how impossible it is to form an
exact estimate of the number of Russian troops in
Finland, and yet that the number was considerable.

The Finnish Red Guard, in spite of all, formed the
nucleus of the revolutionary army ; it could supply a
lot of soldiers. Their arms and equipment the Russians
had to provide. And they did their best. When the
General Staff of the Red Guard on the 2nd February
sanction the expenses of the Guard for the next two
months, the estimate reads as follows : —

Marks.
Pay for 30,000 men at 600 marks 36,000,000

,, ,, the Reserve 6,000,000

,, ,, Sanitary Service 3,000,000

,, ,, Widows 2,000,000

Marks 47,000,000

103

Here all expenses for clothes, food supplies, and arms
are lacking. The clothes and food were procured by
" seizures," i.e., the direct plundering of private and
public stores, the arms it fell to Russians to provide.
They were imported from St. Petersburg and Reval.
Besides, command was issued to all the Russian troops
that left Finland — on the 26th February it was decided
that all Polish, Ukrainian, and Estnian soldiers were
to go (they were not Bolsheviks, you see) — to hand over
their arms to the Finnish Red Guard. Finally, the
Russian Red Government on the 20th February took
over all movables in Finland belonging to the Russian
State. There were great quantities of weapons, ammuni-
tion, explosives, food supplies, and other things, which
thus fell into the hands of the Red Guard. The supplies
were, of course, to be paid for, and in the liquida-
tion committees, appointed everywhere, the Russian
Svetshnikoff was chief representative for Finland !

It was, however, necessary to have trained men for
the service of the seven armoured trains, for the armoured
motor-cars, the cannon and quick-firing machine guns
on hand. Such were procured from Russia, and they
were even advertised after in the papers — " no matter
of what nationality." The artillery men received a
monthly salary of 1,200 Finnish marks, the machine
gunners got 900. But the shortage never seemed to
be quite remedied — so large was the importation of arms.
In illustration of the Red Finno-Russian co-operation,
we shall here communicate a telegram sent out by
Svetshnikoff and Vice Commissioner for the Interior,
Taimi, together : —

" To the Special Staff at St. Petersburg.

" By order of the Finnish Government, we request
you to hasten the despatch of volunteers to the General
Staff of the Red Guard at Helsingfors : ten officers from

104

the General Staff, twenty artillery officers, twent}'
machine gun officers, twenty sapper officeis and engineers.
Besides, there is absolute need of 50,000 three-line rifles,
two hundred machine guns (Maxim), fifty three-inch
quick-firing guns, three million Japanese rifle-cartridges,
ten million three-line rifle-cartridges, and one hundred
thousand revolver-cartridges of all calibres."

It is funny to see how ten volunteers out of the officers
of the General Staff are quite simply requisitioned.

In such circumstances it may with justice be asked
what tasks were left over for the Finnish Commander-in-
Chief and the Finnish General Staff. Of course, there
were still a few trifles left even for them to do. But they
were mostly for ornament. When Haapalainen was
elected commander-in-chief he thankfully accepts the
post, but at the same time emphasises the fact that he
is devoid of all military knowledge. In the minutes
of the General Staff a specially enlightening passage
may also be found. The whole interior here depicted
by the by deserves to be known. At the meeting on
the 23rd February a Finnish " comrade " holds forth
who has been on a visit to St. Petersburg. There, he
says, complaint was made of the bad leadership of the
Finnish Red Guard, and there was an uncertainty
whether the sending of more weapons to Finland should
be ventured. This communication was, of course,
received with bitterness, and the lively discussion
establishes the fact that " the aggressive activity of the
Guard has continually been carried on without the
knowledge of the General Staff ! " A sharp reprimand
must therefore be sent to Commander-in-Chief Haapa-
lainen " with the remark that the General Staff will
not undertake the responsibility of reverses in fighting
carried on without the knowledge and decision of the
General Staff ! " In their solicitude the General Staff

105

>olve to procure a commander-in-chief of the best
quality, and a deputation is chosen which is to see the
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, Kiylenko,
and the Russian Naval Minister, Dybenko, with the
petition that one of them will, at least for a shorter
period, take supreme command in Finland. This plan,
however, is naturally relinquished, for, when later in the
evening the meeting is continued after a pause, it is
made known that Dybenko is expected at Helsingfors
and so may eventually be peisuaded. Now the General
Staff have, however, collected all their energies and resolve
that flying machines are to be procured, and that an
army is to be raised at Archangelsk, as there are arms
there as well as many working-men. This army is to
fall into Finland from the North. Besides, a secret plan
is to be formed for hunting out the weapons concealed
by the citizens of Helsingfors. Every house throughout
the city should be closely searched from cellar to attic.
Then it is arranged how the next batch of arms from
St. Petersburg is to be distributed, and, finally, as a
reward for all the energy shown, a kind request is received
from the greatest of all the Bolsheviks, from Lenin
himself. The latter requests that a company of Finnish
Red Guardsmen, " in the uniform of the Guard," may
be placed at his disposal. The soldiers are to go to
St. Petersburg without arms ; they will be armed and
supplied with food there. The General Staff, of course,
agree to this, but are of opinion that the company should
also be of use to its own army. Therefore, after the lapse
of some time it is to return — this time provided with
arms — and be replaced by a fresh company without arms.
" The political aspect of the matter must be arranged by
the Government," conclude the minutes.

Yet, the Russians sometimes make trouble. On the

xo6

before the General Staff. At Viborg Russian soldiers
have been enlisted, and these have just arrived. But
now they have " taken " a whole hotel, and refuse to go to
the front before they get new rifles and new clothes from
head to heel. From the Bjorneborg front the further
communication is received that a band of sailors that
have arrived here have quite suddenly turned back, and
have begun to rob the peaceful population of objects
of gold and silver and other things. The reason was that
they had heard there was some wine in a church. They
had then broken into the church, drunk the com-
munion wine, and gone out on an expedition of
pillage. Neither their Russian nor their Finnish com-
rades dared hinder them — " as a great conflict might
have arisen."

According to the budget of the 2nd February the
Red Guard consisted of 30,000 men. If we assume that
the Reserve received half-pay it amounted to 10,000.
We have thus an army of 40,000 men. But, according
to official documents from the Red, the Guard amounted
to 75,000 in March. The augmentation must mainly
be put down to the forced mobilisation which was carried
out. Already earlier " moral pressure " of every kind
had of course been brought to bear in order to get the
working-men into the Guard, which does not seem to
have been very popular. When the revolution broke
out, the men were tempted with the particularly high
salary, to which was further added free board and in
part free clothing. But now even such working-men as
had not volunteered were forced into the Guard. In
the first place the municipal workmen and the unemployed
were selected. Later the forced mobilisation of all men
was ordered — they were taken in the street — but it was
only in East Finland the proposal was properly carried
through, so that, in fact, " bourgeois " in large numbers

107

were put into the Red ranks at the front. In other
places they were only arrested and locked up.

If we now look over the still extant documents of the
Red Guard, we receive a fair idea of the peculiar order
and discipline reigning throughout it. Some interiors
may also in this respect serve as an illustration of the
military and moral level of the Guard.

In an order of the 26th February the Russian soldiers
are admonished not to sell their rifles to the enemy. —
1,079 parcels of food have been seized on the 13th March
at Raumo. They belong to the Russian Red Cross,
but the commissariat of the Red Guard decide that the
Guard are to have them to eat, " although it may be
contrary to international agreements." — The Red Guard
Cashier at Helsingfors requests that the militia will
work out a list of how many thieves and other professional
criminals are found in the ranks of the Red Guard.

On the 7th April, when the German troops had already
landed and were marching towards Helsingfors, the
Supreme Command of the Red Guard — then a com-
mittee of three — together with the General Staff issue
the following order to the Staff at Helsingfors : " You
will have observed an aeroplane above the city with
black crosses on the wings. Try and find out what it
is. Place zenith guns in suitable places, and bring it
down if it is an enemy." It must well be observed that
aeroplanes with the not unfamiliar iron cross under the
wings had at that time for weeks past been a not un-
common spectacle to the population of the city. — On
the 27th March the Commander-in-Chief on the East
Front sends a communication to all the troops under him
with the request that it be made known to every man.
Both as regards its tenor and style it is very characteristic,
and, literally translated, runs as follows : " Whereas
among the men in the parts of Kavantsaari such an

io8

opinion has arisen that whether they may get leave or
they may not they take it of their own accord, and yet
they know very well that if they leave the front the
butchers will get free access to conquer perhaps the whole
of Finland, murder the working-men, and drown the
revolution in blood." Then follows an urgent exhorta-
tion to stay at the front. — On the 9th March a
committee is appointed at Helsingfors to investigate
where all the troops from the capital had gone, as it
was only known that they were dispersed along the front
and entirely lacked officers. The committee departed,
but a member reports that already on the way out a
quarrel arose, and it dissolved. — The Commander-in-Chief
on the West Front is subjected to an examination on
the 1st March, because he is seldom sober, and has
therefore led the troops astray. — On the 5th April the
order is issued that the staff at the front in Syvalahti
are to have 50 litres of brandy "for a special purpose."
— A troop starts for the front, but discovers on the way
that it has two u Commanders-in-Chief." In order to
settle the question about the supreme command, the
two field marshals take hold each of one end of a rope,
and pull with all their might each in his own direction.
The victor becomes the real commander-in-chief. — The
commanders and the men were often of different opinions.
There is a swarm of protests and complaints. As an
example, the following extract from the minutes of a
meeting held by the men of the motor-car department
may be communicated : The demand of the commander-
in-chief, Salminen, that the chief of the motor-car
department, K. Siintola, should be removed, if the worst
came to the worst by force of arms, was brought under
discussion. Many opinions were expressed, and it was
unanimously agreed to administer a severe reproof to
the commander-in-chief for his shameful conduct to

log

the chief of the motor-car department." — The Red
Guard had a lot of women in its service. They were
employed partly as common soldiers, for many woman
battalions had been formed, partly as nurses, partly
as God only knows what. But there was this curious
circumstance that the wives of the Red Guardsmen were
not allowed to serve in the Red Guard. In part at least
the reason for this was no doubt that ladies with more
extensive connections were more heartily welcomed in
those circles. So much is suggested by a written
communication from the municipal employment office
at Helsingfors, which informs the Red Guard that there
is great unemployment among the women of the city.
" This is in part due to the fact/' says the office with
polite good fellowship, " that the Red Guard to a certain
extent follow the so-called system of favouritism in the
appointment of women, and therefore there are women in
the service of the Guard who, on account of their moral
conduct, are not adapted for work." — A cashier in the
Guard sends in a written complaint of the frauds
committed by his staff. — The chief of the general staff
is taken into custody in the street, together with a
Russian colonel, on account of intoxication. — On the
26th March the staff at Helsingfors resolve that the majors
are to pledge themselves to go with their men to the front !
What has here been stated will no doubt be sufficient.
These examples will not exactly give you any high
opinion of the value of the Red army as a fighting power.
And yet it was able to offer decent resistance. This
— apart from the great lot of artillery, etc. — was due to
the fact that the civil wai in many ways had an " old-
fashioned stamp," and that the innumerable skirmishes,
surprises, and actions required more personal courage
than discipline and control. In general there was no
lack of such personal courage.

no

4. THE LEADERSHIP OF THE RED.

Not without self-confidence did the Red often declare
in their papers that they were doing as another leading
people in history had done : they were building their
temple with the trowel in one hand and the sword in the
other. The simile is right enough, but with the restric-
tion that the right hand seldom knew what the left hand
was doing. For what the trowel built was not respected
by the sword.

The great reform programme of the Red Government
was, of course, never carried through. But it was at
once subjected to criticism also from their own adherents.
A written communication published on the 8th February
reflects the disappointment felt in the Labour circles
which had expected a real social revolution. It is the
workmen at Kymmene Works — the largest in the
country — who express their disappointment at a meeting
" attended by thousands.'' The programme vacillates
between efforts for petty reform and economical revolu-
tionary principles " it says very truly in the communica-
tion to the Government, and it is therefore not entirely
satisfactory to the revolutionary Labour Class. For this
reason the meeting desire that the Government will at
the earliest opportunity acquaint our People with the
main features of their programme, which, according to
the unanimous wish of the meeting, should rest on the
basis of economical revolution."

The " Government " did not, however, comply with
this wish. On the contrary, its members sought in
speech and writings to convince their adherents that a
social revolution was neither aimed at nor possible. The
fact of the matter was that on account of their corruption,
the citizens had not been able to do their duty, and there-
fore the working-men had been obliged to undertake the,
by the way, difficult task of governing the country.

Ill

In reality all the old government offices were kept,
only new and quite inexperienced people were appointed
to the offices, and the names were altered. All " boards "
made into " councils." The railway board became
the railway council, the school board the school council,
and so on.

An eager legislative activity was, however, started
at once, but its underlying intention was obvious enough :
the object was to procure adherents also outside the
Government's own circle. Judging from everything, it
was a great disappointment to the Red that the country
population was so little revolutionary as it proved to
be. It was therefore hastily overwhelmed with benefits.
First it was the turn of the proletariat in the country :
crofters and small-holders. By an act of the 31st January,
it was proclaimed that the latter could continue to
cultivate their soil, and that even without paying any
sort of rent. A later decree did, however, in certain
cases compensate the owner, and in the shape of State
bonds. Also the freeholders obtained easements : the
duty of making and keeping up roads was shifted to the
State in return for a certain tax, the amount of which
was to be fixed later on.

Another group of citizens, whose animosity to the
Red rule roused the great resentment and indignation
of the new men in power, was the teachers, especially
the teaching staff of the board schools. About one-
fourth of all the persuasive articles published were meant
for the teaching class. It is funny to see how completely
the Red were puzzled by the opposition of these men and
women. So convinced were they that everything in
this world turned on money that they could not make
out why poor people should side with capitalists.
Salaries were therefore raised considerably, and it was
expected that the teachers would come forward and thank.

112

They did not come. It was then guessed that there
was something " ideal " at the bottom, and elaborate
programmes for the reform of the school teaching were
published — an odd contribution to the psychology of
the Red. How complete was the entanglement in the
" capitalist " view of the world is pregnantly seen from
an article for the consolation of the relatives of the
killed. Why, it is here asked, did we mourn for a husband,
a son, who died ? Because the wage-earner died with
him. But now that the State takes care that no one shall
suffer want, now there is no reason to mourn for those
that have been killed !

It was not much the revolutionary Government
managed to do to build up the new community, in spite
of the mass of " acts " published. Besides those stated
above, an act was issued about easements in the
municipal rates, several decrees concerning the regulation
of food consumption, an act concerning the abolishment
of all church dues, one concerning the abolishment of
the old servants' law, one concerning the " interimistic
arrangement of the administration of the interior/' one
concerning the taxing of rent, and finally acts concerning
the taking over by the State of factories that had pro-
claimed lock-outs, and of properties whose owners had
fled. These laws took no real effect. None of the
White cared for them of course, and the Red awaited
further developments.

Yet the leaders of the revolution came to play a
decisive part in two very important social domains,
those of the administration of justice and of finance,
where it was now felt what the new men in power
could do.

Just as Kerenski in time past showed the Russian
Revolution the way to a higher humanity by abolishing
capital punishment, so the Red, also, inaugurated the

H3

new era in Finland by the same measure. This was,
however, a mere formality, as in accordance with Finnish
law no executions had taken place since the beginning
of the last century. It became a formality, too, by the
fact that it was disregarded. But the measure of
abolishing all existing courts of Justice and in their
place establishing M revolutionary courts " was, however,
no formality. Such were established in every township,
and above all they took up cases concerning " counter-
revolutionary activity." The judge's office was to be
held by a person enjoying the confidence of the working-
men, and sentence was to be passed in accordance with
conscience and common sense, not according to any
previously settled system. So both the choice of the
judge and the passing of the sentence was quite arbitrary.
The only guide found was a list of the punishments to
be applied. They consisted in warnings, fines, dis-
missal from office, seizure of part or all of the chattels of
the convicted person, imprisonment, hard labour, and
the loss of certain personal and social advantages. The
accused could be sentenced to several of these punish-
ments simultaneously. In theory, this institution was
thus very humane ; in practice, as we shall soon see,
it became quite otherwise. A revolutionary supreme
court of justice was also established, but there are no
signs of it having ever acted.

The revolutionary tribunals sentenced " the people's
enemies." Those who had formerly been sentenced
to lose their liberty by the verdicts of the "bourgeois"
tribunals were, of course, on a different level. They
were victims of the oppression of the capitalist system,
and measures must be taken for their benefit. Already
on the 6th February the Government decrees that the
staffs of the prisons and houses of correction are to work
out lists of all such prisoners who may be regarded as

H

ii4

harmless to the community, and may therefore be set
free. Although the prison staffs seem to have been
exceedingly liberal in their conception — one prison alone
(the district gaol at Helsingfors) setting free 135 prisoners
— the prisoners themselves were not satisfied. On the
17th February the Red Press published a communication
from the prisoners in the house of correction at Abo
under the fine title : " Hopes of the Prisoners. Profound
Remorse and Yearning for Liberty." In this the
prisoners thank their benefactors, and aver that " the
greater part " of the liberated prisoners will no doubt
behave well. " For a friendly action pledges us prisoners,
too, to reward friendship with friendship, whereas cruelty,
hard-heartedness and indifference excites animosity,
vindictiveness, hatred, and indifference, which will swell
the ranks of the robbers with all sorts of instigators of
trouble and strike-breakers." But one item of the condi-
tions " makes the prisoners very sad." " It is this, that
only such prisoners are liberated as are not considered
dangerous to the community. To this we shall only
remark that, if the prisoners are only liberated after
the manner in which the officials of the old Tsardom in
their partiality have blackened us in their reports, then
there are not many who can hope to be set free at once."
The Red Government seems to have seen this, too,
for on the nth March it is decided that the term of
punishment for all convicts is to be reduced by half.
Prisoners for life are liberated when they have been in
prison for five years, All that are liberated regain their
civic rights. It need hardly be remarked that there is
no question here of " political offenders," but only of
gross criminals. The reason for this great leniency
must again be put down to the fact that the army needed
reinforcement.

What it meant to the community as a whole that the

H5

prisons were emptied of criminals is easy to perceive.
No less harm was done to the country in other ways by
the financial activity of the Red. The latter, of course,
played a very prominent part, for a revolution, as is well
known, always makes great demands on the cash-box.
In the first place, it was important to the Russian Govern-
ment to get the State bank, the Bank of Finland, into
its own hands. They succeeded in this after some trouble.
The bank building was easily accessible, but the keys to
the bank vaults were not to be got hold of. It proved,
however, that a messenger at the bank belonged to the
Red, and he directed them to where the reserve keys
were kept. They were found in a safe placed in a vault
of earlier construction. The Red called in a whole band
of locksmiths with modern housebreaking tools, and so
they succeeded in opening the vault as well as the safe.
So the Red Government were in possession of the keys.
The Minister of Finance had honourably begun his
career by burglary, and the accommodating messenger
was appointed chief cashier at the bank. The sum the
Red got into possession of was considerable ; it amounted
to over 1 60 millions at the chief office, and about 25
millions at the branch office in South Finland, which
was opened in a similar manner. The store of gold and
the greater part of the securities had, however, already
long ago been taken to a place of safety in North
Finland.

The 185 millions were, however, soon gone, and fresh
expedients had to be found. All sorts of " acts " designed
to increase the revenue were issued, but were only of
little help. The worst hindrance was of course the fact
that the private banks were obstinately kept closed,
and that the State bank enjoyed the confidence of no
one. The money went out of circulation as soon as it
had been issued. An order was given, in consequence of

H 2

n6

which all houses of business were forced to deposit all
their returns in the Bank of Finland, but it was not
obeyed. An attempt was made to get hold of the foreign
dues of the bank, but it failed. Finally, the largest
private bank was burglared and its stock of drafts taken
over. The bills due were not honoured. The want of
money was felt most because the army must necessarily
be paid at the proper time and in full, so that the men
should not become discontented. And yet it was at
last necessary to retrench on this tender point too. The
men only got part of their pay in cash, the rest in cheques
drawn to the order of certain persons, and to be paid
" later on."

In the meanwhile, already on the 8th February it

had been resolved to follow the way shown by the

Bolsheviks — a forced printing of paper money. As soon

as the printing press had been set going the work was

kept going indefatigably with a working day of twelve

hours for the workmen, and up to the 8th April, when the

Government fled from Helsingfors, notes at a nominal

value of 77,288,000 Finnish marks were printed. These

notes must be considered counterfeit, as the Red did not

dare write their own names on the notes, but furnished

them all with the signatures of the officials they had

themselves dismissed. When they fled from Helsingfors

the Red took all cash, about 17 millions, with them, and,

besides, about 13 millions had some days before been

dispatched east. It is also worth mentioning that the

Red Government, shortly before they disappeared to

Russia at the beginning of May, made preparations for

a continued printing of paper money at St. Petersburg.

Whether this led to any result is not known.

The financial rule of the Red was not successful.
It began by burglary, and ended by theft. But, be-
sides, the opposition of the " bourgoisie " was specially

ii7

perceptible on this point. A smash would have been
unavoidable if the Red rule had lasted any longer.

Two " great " feats of government are due to the
Red leaders. These were a proposal for a constitution,
and an agreement with Russia. The constitution, which,
after the definite victory of the people, was to be decided
by a general plebiscite — or, " at least," by the general
vote of the working-men, is only of interest in so far
as it shows once more that the Red did not think of
any social revolution. It contains nothing about the
nationalisation of the means of production, but implies
contract between private individuals. It, however, aims
at a far-reaching democracy where every citizen becomes
a professional politician. The power is with an assembly
of two hundred members — a single-chamber like the one
already in existence — but elected by universal and equal
suffrage for all who have completed their twentieth year
(not twenty-four, as before). The executive organ is
a people's commission elected for three years from out
of this assembly, which continually controls its activity
through committees. Every decision taken by the
Commission in a matter of administration may be
referred by the committee of investigation to the
test of the Single-Chamber, if the committee consider
the decision to be opposed to what the Single-
Chamber would probably resolve ! In legislation,
administration, and administration of justice, the people
itself take part directly, both by the fact that
10,000 voters have the right of bringing in bills, and by
the fact that one-twentieth of the members that have
taken part in the last elections have the right to demand
a plebiscite for the annulment of any decision taken by
the Single-Chamber, the Commission or any other adminis-
trative authority, and for the repeal of the verdict of
any tribunal. In order to " crush the bureaucracy," it

n8

is decided that all offices in the administration and the
courts of justice can only be held for five years at the
outside.

The proposal is undoubtedly democratic. From a
psychological point of view, it denotes suspicion
systematised. It is taken for granted that anyone in
power yearns to abuse his power. Therefore, he is to
be under the intensified control of the " people."

The agreement between the " Council of the People's
Commissioners in the Federative Republic of Russia *'
and the " People's Commission in the Socialistic Labour
Republic of Finland " need not here be communicated
in detail. It is an apparently highly advantageous
agreement, in the twenty paragraphs of which there are,
however, many pitfalls concealed. The agreement was
to be a beautiful proof of the patriotic disposition of the
Red, but in reality, it gave Russia wide possibilities of
interfering in the affairs of Finland. It particularly
gave to the Labour Party the possibility of always
asserting its majority in the parliament, as the Russian
working-men residing in Finland would get full political
rights. It would be so easy to secure a lively importation
of Bolsheviks before each election.

The chief features of the positive work of the Red
have been indicated above. Very much they did not
accomplish, partly, of course, because their attention was
directed most towards the war operations, partly on
account of the strong opposition of the bourgeoisie, but
chiefly because they themselves lacked a well-defined
programme. The only thing they had yearned for was
to get into power, but when the power was in their hands
they did not know what to use if for. What they were most
interested in was to fill all offices with their own men.
During the three months their rule lasted they managed
to create a bureaucracy as ignorant, as inefficient, as

ii9

unworthy as it was possible. There was a swarm
of " councillors," commissioners, committees, and
authorities. And of these there were many who thought
power really existed to be abused. Book-keeping and
accounts were complicated things ; no wonder, therefore,
if they often showed all sorts of peculiarities.

A really naive proof of the inefficiency of the rulers
was an energetic appeal from the municipal government
at Helsingfors inviting all the working-men of the city
to " creative activity." And this was to consist in
everyone trying to think out some system or other by
which the complicated affairs of the city could be
governed. The sixty members themselves of the
municipal council declare that they are at a loss how
to cope with all the difficulties.

Another trait that shows how little the Red respected
their own most sacred principles is this, that they order
a longer working-day than the eight hours they had
fought so energetically for, and which they had succeeded
in establishing by law. It has already been mentioned
that the working-hours in the money printing press had
been extended to twelve hours. And when all the
tailors of the country in March were ordered to work
exclusively for the Red Guard, their working-day was
fixed at ten hours. It is expressly said that the tailors
who refuse are to be sent to the front.

In the meanwhile there was great official satisfaction
at all of it. One paper says : "In this country slavery
is beginning to be on its last legs. If now the bourgeoisie
press could shake off their nose-band, we should be
drowned in an ocean of the most disgusting abuse. Only
think how this lying press will writhe in their strait-
waistcoats when they see one link after another in the
chain of slavery being cut away ! " Yes, here was the
source of the greatest joy : the triumph over an opponent

120

who one tried to imagine had been beaten, the gloating
over the fact that " the bourgeoisie had now been forced
on their knees to the Labour class."

5. THE RED AND THEIR OPPONENTS.

The extremists in the Labour Part}^ had forced it to
revolution. These were found in the Red Guard. When
the insurrection broke out it was therefore only natural
that the Guard played the most prominent part, and felt
like the real ruler of the country. Numerous arbitrary
acts on the part of the Guard showed what a feeling of
absolute power reigned within it. The troops lived as
in the country of an enemy. Whatever they liked they
took. You wanted a hotel, or a restaurant, or a motor
car, or a special train. All this sort of expropriation
was called " sequestration." You showed a stamped
paper, or wrote a receipt, and the owner had to content
himself with that. The Red Government had no little
trouble with their armed forces, for they did not even
respect their own authorities. They particularly made
food regulation difficult by taking all the supplies they
got hold of for their own use, and by stopping the food
trains to the towns and looting them. But generally
the desires of the Red were, of course, towards the
property of the citizens. This was considered as quite
lawful booty. The whole commissariat of the Red
Guard was founded on the possibility of expropriation,
and only the firms entering into continuous relations with
the Red, and having contracts with them — and they
were few — were compensated for what they took. There
was a special Red " commissioner of sequestrations."

This branch of the activity of the Red mostly
affected business men and manufacturers. They, of
course, suffered considerable losses. A greater, personal

121

inconvenience befell the great circles of citizens who
were exposed to the arresting propensities of the Red.
Members of the Protective Corps were, of course, eagerly
sought, as well as members of the Government. During
the first days of the revolution a number of Lantdag
members were arrested, but most of them were liberated
shortly after. On the 14th March, however, the ordei is
given for the immediate arrest of all bourgeois members
of the Lantdag. Already before — on the 6th March —
the War and Economical Committee of the Central
Council had preferred a proposal for the wholesale
imprisonment of the following persons : All former
members of the Government and district magistrates ;
all presidents and cashiers of the town and parish councils,
all bank managers and bank cashiers, " all millionaires
jobbing in shares," all merchants and manufacturers
who had closed their business. All these should be
kept in prison until the victory has been won. But the
arrests were never very systematic. Informers flourished,
bringing about the arrest of now one and now the other,
and, besides, people were arrested because they had let
fall a " counter-revolutionary " remark in the streets,
or smiled at some absurdly bold and oddly equipped
Red warrior.

The Red had a special grudge against all the
functionaries who refused to work under their leadership
— i.e., all government officials. It was also difficult to
find out a suitable way of treating them. Of course the
right to strike had been proclaimed as one of the first
rights of man, but such things were not for the
'" bourgeois." With them it was not strike, but
" sabotage." But the difficulty was that on the one
hand it had been solemnly promised that the bureaucracy
should be crushed — and now it had been completely
destroyed — but, on the other hand, one could not do

122

without the bureaucrats. Then the plan was conceived
of dismissing everybody who had not offered their
services before a certain day. As no one came forward*
it was announced that all were dismissed. And now
when whole groups of functionaries were arrested for
their " sabotage," they simply referred to the fact that
they had been dismissed. And there was no help for
it but to let them go again. Some specially indispensable
subordinate officials were forced to work by threats and
violence. Some escaped and concealed themselves as
best they could, others took more energetic measures.
Thus a young lady who was employed in the office of
the Bank of Finland at Kotka took a revolver, and fired
it through her right hand, in order to become unfit for
work in this way. This action did not at all impress
the Red ; on the contrary, a close investigation was
set in train, for a thing like that expressed an appalling
counter-revolutionary temper.

The unemployed subordinate officials were, however,
considered to be too tantalising, and they were annoyed
as much as possible. Those who lived in houses belonging
to the State were put into the street — a measure felt
greatly, owing to the great shortage of housing accommo-
dation— and one proposal after another was made in
the committees of the Red. Now it is a suggestion to
take all food cards from a striker, now again to demand
cards as members of the Labour Party, of all who have
the right of getting fuel from the public supplies, etc.
All these measures were, however, at last crystallised
into the appointing of a Working Duty Committee
which commenced its activities on the first days of
April. It sent out printed forms to the Government
offices requesting information about striking subordinate
officials. It was intended to put them all to compulsory
work for the account of the Red Guard, but the plan was

123

not carried out, as the rule of the Red Guard came to
an end shortly after.

There were, however, a great number of workmen in
the service of the State — above all, on the railways —
who saw no possibility of striking, both for economical
reasons, and because they were personally known to
many former fellow-workmen among the Red, and so
had only slight prospect of keeping themselves successfully
concealed. They remained at their work, but beyond
this, they offered no helping hand to the Red. This
was not as it ought to be, thought the men in power,
and they began to demand a written obligation from these
workmen to acknowledge the new Government. On
account of the strong opposition this measure excited
and as the train service — which was already beforehand
very disorderly — looked as if it would quite stop, the
carrying through of this claim was postponed time after
time. But when the railway workmen at Helsingfors
came to draw their pay on the ist April, their pay was
refused to them unless they signed the obligation. Those
who gave up their pay rather than signing were not,
however, allowed to go. They were arrested, and,
when Helsingfors was relieved on the 12th April, 160
railway workers were found locked up in a Russian
barrack. Similar methods were employed against other
groups of working-men and in other parts of the realm
of the Red.

The command of the Red Guard never felt satisfied
with the. measures taken against the citizens. At a
meeting on the ioth February they resolved that all
" butcher guardsmen " — and by these were meant all
men who had not joined the Red — were to do compulsory
work, " particularly those who belong to the so-called
educated classes." At a meeting on the 26th March
there is again great indignation because all men of the

124

ages of eighteen to forty-five have not yet been forced
to mobilise at Helsingfors.

The Red wanted to show their power, they wished to
oppress. They silenced the press, and only allowed
their own productions to be issued.* They arrested and
annoyed everybody who did not sanction their measures.
Such a thing must, however, be looked upon as the
natural consequence of the masses being intoxicated
with the power they had acquired, and it is, therefore, in
a certain way pardonable. But what can never be
pardoned is the unheard-of number of outrages com-
mitted by the Red. Violence and oppression will,
perhaps, in the way of nature follow in the tracks of a
revolution, robbery and murder need not.

The war methods of the Red were, of course, not those
sanctioned internationally. You killed as well as you
could, apart from all rules. One could hardly expect
anything else from such undisciplined bands. But one
thing might have been demanded of them, that they had
let their prisoners of war live. But this they did not.
There is abundant evidence that the Red regularly killed
their captives. In the first place, the fact that White
prisoners of war were never found with them (with one
exception, which will be more fully related below), and
in the second place, statements from doctors who had
been forced to work with the field ambulances of the
Red : they never got White wounded for treatment,
not even when the Red accidentally became masters
of the battlefield — the wounded White lying there were
killed at once. In the third place, we have the evidence
of the Red themselves.

* With one exception though. The War Cry issued by the
Salvation Army appeared during the rule of the Red, but severe
accusations were directed against it for a " counter-revolutionary
way of writing."

125

The editor of a Labour Paper at Bjflrneborg, Han
Uksila, writes to the Red Government on the 27th March
expressing his anxiety at the reverses in the war. He
sees only one possibility of victory, viz., that he himself
takes the command on the whole of the Western front.
If he gets it, he intends to commence an offensive at
Bjorneborg. In this place there are 7,000 Red, armed in
the best manner, " though untrained and unaccustomed
to discipline." The enemy's equipment is much poorer,
" and," writes Uksila, " among their men there is no
doubt one-third who would give themselves up, if only
we could get our men to stop killing the prisoners, and
if we could bring this to the knowledge of the White."
The aspirer to the post as commander-in-chief could
safely speak of this absolutely non-existent third of the
White army, for he knew very well that the conditions for
their surrender could not be fulfilled.

On the 12th February a communication is made at
the meeting of the General Staff : the Lettish soldiers at
the Savolaks front report that the Finnish Red, when they
had got hold of prisoners taken by the Letts, had
immediately shot them — without any trial. This has
had a " disheartening effect on the Letts." The General
Staff do not order any investigation, they only resolve
to issue an order of the day containing a warning against
violence to prisoners.

On the 8th February the Red papers have a great
bulletin of victory. Near Bjorneborg the Red have
vanquished a troop of White who had barricaded them-
selves in a farm. Eleven were made prisoners, and taken
to Bjorneborg, where they were shot by Russian marines.
The report, which only mentions the shooting of the
prisoners quite casually, looked rather queer. Partly
because the whole region round BjSrneborg was Red,
partly because the faun which was the scene of the

126

fight had been troubled several times already in the
summer of 1917 by the Red. The farmer and his many
sons were much hated by the rufhanly element at
Bjorneborg. And quite right. On the 10th February,
first a notice is found in the papers of " Great Spoils
of War," which consisted of the hundred and twelve cows
and forty-eight horses of the above farm, and later a
report of a soldiers' meeting at Bjorneborg. Here the
Russian soldiers eagerly protest against the plundering of a
solitary farm and murdering of unarmed prisoners. This
outrage has been committed by Finnish Red Guardsmen
and a few soldiers. The garrison at Bjorneborg now
demand that all the plunder be given up " to the Red
Guard as the property' of the Finnish proletariat," but
at the same time the garrison demand that the robbers,
as well as the murderers, should be severely punished.
For itself the paper expresses the hope that the members
of the Red Guaid who have committed the murders and
robberies may be dismissed from the Guard ; as may be
seen, a vety mild wish. It is little credible that it was
fulfilled, or that it was but seriously meant.

A more melancholy proof of the brutality of the Red
Guard than this of Russian soldiers protesting against
its cruelties can hardly be imagined.

As already stated, the Protective Corps at Helsingfors
had left the city the day before the insurrection broke
out. The greater part of it proceeded to the little town
Borga, east of Helsingfors. A " White " territory now
came into existence in this place. Another arose west
of the capital, in the parish of Kyrkslatt. The White
Corps were very incompletely armed, and could not
make a stand against the Russian artillery of the Red.
First the eastern corps was disrupted, and the men
dispersed in the Skeiries, where they suffered terrible
hardship. Several of the White fugitives who had had

127

their homes at Helsingfors now tried to get into the city
at night. Some were successful, but the greater part
were captured and shot, either on the ice in the harbours
of the city, or in the streets. Many of these people were
schoolboys or young students belonging to the most
noted families in the capital, and these murders were
of a particularly revolting character.

When later on the western corps stood face to face
with destruction, the Swedish Ambassador at Helsingfors
intervened, and succeeded in concluding an agreement in
consequence of which the White, who had already been
driven out of their fortified positions, sunendered to the
Red. The latter on their side promised to permit Swedish
control of the treatment of the prisoners. In this way
a collection of Coo White prisoners of war got into the
hands of the Red, and these 600 were excellently suited
for advertising the humane warfare of the Red in Sweden.

For it must be remembered that the Red had a whole-
some fear that Sweden would take proceedings against
them, and they did what they could to create an opinion
in their favour in this country, strong enough to prevent
all official interference. As one of the many weapons
used in the campaign, the 600 prisoners were employed.
The latter were, however, a thorn in the flesh of the Red
Guard, and more than once, at the meetings of the
officers of the Guard, a just indignation was expressed
that they were too well treated, and also discontent with
the Swedish interference on the whole. Thus on the
7th March, at a meeting of officers, a deputation is chosen
which is to lay before the General Staff the desire of the
assembly that the Swedish Consul should not inti
with the treatment of the prisoners. But other forces
acted in the opposite direction. We see this clearly,
e.g., in the following communication on the telephone,
from the staff of the Guard at Tammerfors to the Red

128

authorities at Helsingfors on the 27th February (the
telephone conversations of the Tammerfors staff were
secretly pried upon by the White) : "A deputation wall
arrive from Sweden under the leadership of Mayor
Lindhagen — four persons in all. Our Swedish comrades'
behaviour to us will depend on the way we treat the
captive batcher guardsmen. Warn the staff there to
see to it that the prisoners have no complaints to make.
The prisoners will be personally questioned." How little
a humanity of this kind was in accordance with the
habits of the Red is seen from the next telephone
conversation. It is Bjorneborg ringing up. " The
Russians will not go to the front before they have
plundered. What are we to do ? " The answer is :
" Let them plunder as many millions of citizens' palaces
as they like."

The Red campaign abroad was very energetic. It
employed many other means than that of the 600 live
prisoners, who were exhibited with pride. It attempted
to make the Social-Democrats of Europe believe that the
Red were noble fellow-partisans who had been obliged
to take up aims against a black reaction, and, above all,
it tried to make it credible that the White army carried
on with brutal cruelty. Finally, it was very positively
asserted that the outrages committed by the Red which
could not be denied were carried out by the anarchist
elements which had crept into the army, and which
it in every way attempted to exterminate. On the
whole, the efforts were directed towards convincing the
foreign countries — above all, Sweden — that the civil war
was carried on by two equal parties, of which one was
no better than the other, and that the only proper
attitude for the foreign powers to take would be a strictly
neutral one.

The value of all these assertions need not here be

129

specially tried. Only one point will be more closely
examined : that of the comparative innocence of the
Red with regard to the crimes committed.

We must, then, first note the agitation-work against
the " bourgeois " carried on by the Red Press. There
was not exactly any fear of blood-dripping words. Here
is an example : " The bloodhounds of the White Guard
lick their chaps when they smell the warm blood of the
working-men wherewith they quench their burning blood-
thirst."

One or two extracts from a lengthy article with the
superscription, " Barbarians ! " : —

" We know that a thinker has said : ' No wild beast
is so cruel as the bourgeois if you touch his purse.' The
recent events show that this is really so. Already
before this state of affairs (thus it was preferred to
designate the insurrection !) took its beginning, it was
clearly seen that the citizens feared for their cheque-books,
and puzzled out the most shameful expedients for
preventing the People's hand from getting at them. It
was already a bold enough thing to push on the develop-
ment of things as they did in order to evoke civil war.
But this was not enough for them. Even a civil war
seemed too humane to the citizens when it was not
accompanied by the most atrociously vindictive murders
and the most brutal outrages."

The article goes on to state all sorts of fabricated
cruelties by the White, and continues : —

" It need not be pointed out whither that sort of
cruelties will lead. Hitherto the Red Guardsmen have
not offered violence to unarmed citizens, and much less
to their women and children I But what will be the
consequence of the continuance of such atrocities on the
part of the opponents ? No example is more infectious
than that of the vendetta."

I

130

The intention of this is obvious. What is wanted
is to neutralise the effect of the many outrages committed
by the Red. They were wholly and solely the natural
consequence of the behaviour of the White ! As regards
the methods of war of the White, they must undoubtedly
be characterised as stern. As they had to do with an
enemy who murdered and maimed all their enemies,
as all the bodies of the fallen were plundered, and as
they knew what cruelties the Red had been guilty of
behind the front, it was difficult to make room for any
leniency. The White fought against insurgents and
traitors ; their war was a war of liberation against
Russians and ruffians ; they were really no army at war,
but a hastily collected number of volunteers who had
gone out to punish malefactors and enemies of their
country. No wonder then if they sometimes made short
work of the trial ; if exasperation led to severity, harsh-
ness, and — if you will — to brutality. But this is one
thing ; the cruelties and torture spoken of by the Red
Press, another. Of such things the White army was
innocent, but the Red army, guilty.

During the world-war it has been seen more than
once how difficult it is to verify all the tales of cruelties
committed. Besides, in themselves they only prove
that there are some individuals who are able to commit
any atrocity in their frenzy. By such things an army
cannot be judged, nor — as in this case — a mass move-
ment in its entirety. The thing to be considered is the
mentality of the fighting masses as a whole, the discipline
and self-control to be found, and the punishments the
malefactors were subjected to in their own ranks. In
the posthumous papers of the Red we get a sufficiently
clear image of the spirit reigning among them to be
able to convict them. They were not all robbers and
murderers, but those who were not did nothing, absolutely

i3i

nothing, to put a stop to the regular mania for theft
and murder raging in their ranks. Here the proclamations
against cruelties bow and again published in their papers
cannot come under consideration ; they were not designed
for their own bands, but for the audience — i.e., the foreign
countries, and especially Sweden. Besides, the proclama-
tions regularly contained such a number of accusations
against the White that they acted more like incitements
than dampers. And between them column after column
was filled with the most blood-curdling descriptions of
the cruelty and bloodthirstiness of the White. The
service at the front did not in general please the Red —
not a few meetings of the men resolved that the troops
had had enough of offensive operations and now intended
to pass over to guard service in their homes. It was
therefore desired to force them to see the necessity for
fighting ; if for no other reason, so as not to fall into
the hands of the wild beast White. In the meanwhile
the many and lengthy descriptions also resulted in the
behaviour of the Red becoming cruel beyond all descrip-
tion. Perhaps this was not the intention, but it was the
natural consequence.

We shall now proceed to the consideration of the
darkest chapter in the history of the Red insurrection,
the murders behind the front.

How many unarmed persons have fallen victims to
the lust for murder among the Red cannot, unfortunately,
be accurately ascertained as yet . Many have disappeared,
of whom their relatives have not yet given up all hope ;
now and again a dead body is still found in the woods ;
and the sea, as well as the lakes, may yet cast up many
dead on the shore. But it is certain that the number
exceeds one thousand. At least one thousand murders.
And the murderers ? Not one of them has been punished
by the Red Government, This fact must be kept well

T 2

132

in mind when judging of the ideality and humanity of
the Red.

It has a certain interest to see what trades and
classes are chiefly represented among the murdered.
A hastily made out list of 624 shows the following
distribution : —

Agriculturists

...

193

(or

31 per cent.)

Students, schoolboys

141 »

22

> > > >

Engineers, clerks, business men,

bank clerks

...

129 ,,

21

>> >>

Working-men

...

66 „

10

>> >y

District magistrates, policemen

...

23 1

Subordinate officials

20 j "

7

> ) > >

Teachers

15 1

Clergymen

...

10 f "

4

> > > >

Women

5'

Lantdag members ...

...

3

Veterinaries, apothecaries...

...

6

>>

3

y ) > >

Physicians

...

3.

Sailors, etc

...

10 „

2

> > ) >

Total.

624 (or 100 per cent.]

The list shows that it is above all the rural districts
which have been ravaged. The first group, which mainly
embraces peasants, but also landed proprietors, stewards,
and inspectors, together with the third group, mainly
embracing the staffs of various works, constitutes half
of the whole number. The largest group but one, the
students and schoolboys, comprises such who were either
suspected of belonging to the Protective Corps, or really
did belong to them, and either tried to get to the White
through the lines of the Red, or were fugitives after their
separate corps had been beaten by the Red. Though
they could thus be reckoned as belonging to the forces

133

of the opponents, yet they were unarmed when they
were captured and shot.

The number of murdered working-men is compara-
tiwly large. They were such as would not on any
conditions join the Red movement, and were therefore
regarded as traitors. There are also many murders of
clergymen. These murders — and in several cases they
were combined with torture and the violation and pillage
of the church — are the result of the campaign of the
Labour Press against the Church and its men. The
murders of police officers again prove how large a part
the old police customers and jail-birds played in the Red
Guard. They now revenged themselves for the months
and years they had been imprisoned.

In a number of cases the motives for the murders
may thus be inferred. But in most cases we have only
to reckon with the generally accepted opinion that all
opponents — all that did not agree with the Red — were
to be murdered. The best idea of the causes of the
murders, and the manner in which they were committed,
we shall get by choosing some examples. Among the
papers of the Red a number of documents concerning
the murders are found, and they often throw a clear light
on the views of the Red. For it sometimes happened
that some murder occasioned a " Red " investigation.

This first occurred when the arrested member of
the Lantdag, A. Mikkola, a barrister, the author of the
petition concerning the re-establishment of the army, and
the young physician, G. Schybergson, were murdered.
Schybergson was arrested on the 2nd February at the
hospital where he was doing service, was taken to a
park and shot. Finland's Association of Physicians, as
well as the Swedish Ambassador at Helsingfors entered
a protest against the murder of Schybergson. The Red
were obliged to make investigations. " If needful, the

134

delinquents are to be arrested," it was resolved by the
General Staff of the Red Guard.

A Commission for the Investigation of Murder and
other Outrages committed in Helsingfors and Environs
during the Revolution was now appointed, i.e., not
until the 13th February. The murderers had had ample
time to disappear ! The work of the Commission gives
the following result : About the murderers of Doctor
Schybergson nothing is known. Information had been
communicated to the Red Guard, from which it appeared
that at the same hospital in which he was doing service
there was a head nurse, Mrs. Blom, in whose rooms
members of the Protective Corps used to meet. A big
troop of Red Guardsmen were sent to the hospital.
They rung the bell of Schybergson's door, and enquired
for Mrs. Blom. But now a calamity occurred. The
Red were not able to pronounce the name properly,
as there is no " b " sound in the Finnish language. They
thought they could perceive a note of scorn in the voice
of the young physician when in answer to their very
stuttering question, due to the difficulties of pronuncia-
tion, he replied : " There is nobody but I living here."
The Red then retired, but, feeling rather cheap at the
meagre result, on their way home they recollected the
hint of a smile on the physician's face, and they turned
back. They searched the house, took Schybergson with
them, shot him, and rifled the dead body.

The murder of Mikkola gave the Commission more
trouble, for here there was no question of an unpremedi-
tated act. The author of the military petition, the anti-
militarist Labour Party's hated " war-Antti," had been
put out of the way on account of his parliamentary
activity. A murder of revenge, that is to say. The
evidence really reveals nothing until the rumour gets
abroad that a certain Red captain has fallen at the front.

I

135

Relying on this, in fact, incorrect communication, the
witnesses, who now feel unrestricted, begin to speak. The
said captain had come to the army service corps of
the Red Guard the day after the murder of Mikkola, and
boasted before the officials there that he had already
murdered thirteen persons, and, amongst other things,
said, " this war- Ant ti had a hard pate." At the same
time it was brought to light that the captain had acted
as executioner, while it was his mayor who had ordered
the murder. The affair ought, therefore, to be plain
enough.

It was, unfortunately, only too plain. Besides these
two murders, the commission had enquired into yet
a third case : that of a working man who had been
found shot in the street. He had been murdered by
two former friends, who were now Red Guardsmen.
It was unfortunate that the commission arrived at such
plain results. On the 26th February it sends in two
written communications to its Government. In the first
it mentiones that Mikkola's murderers are " probably "
the two above-mentioned persons, and is of opinion that
they ought to be tried. But " as these persons are now
at the front, and the commission do not find that
their authority is sufficient to summon persons of the
rank of officers, the commission must leave it to be
decided by the Commander-in-Chief and the procu-
rator whether steps should be taken, and in that case —
what steps."

The other communication is of the following tenor : —
" The Commission does hereby communicate that its
work cannot be continued any longer, on account of the
defective composition of the Commission, and because
the Red Guard does not regard it with a favourable
eye. The three representatives elected to the Commission
by the Red Guard have not taken part in its work, and

136

as no other members have been elected, in spite of the

repeated requests of the Commission, the undersigned

solicit exemption from being members of the Commission,

" M. A. Airola, " J. H. Vehkamaki,

Chairman. Secretary.' '

From an undated account of the activity of the Com-
mission, it is further seen that the representatives of the
Red Guard have to a great extent kept away from the
Commission meetings. These amounted to twelve. At
the first three, two members of the Red Guard were
present, at the next five, one, and at the last three the
chairman and the secretary were quite alone.

From the above documents, we see how much energy
the Red Government exerted in its activity against the
" anarchist elements " it used to speak about. Two
inviolable persons, a physician and a representative of
the people, are murdered ; the murders are enquired into
owing to strong pressure, and, when the investigators begin
to get the scent of a result, the enquiry is terminated. It is
the Red Guard that takes a hostile view of all such steps.

The Guard ruled, and the Guard would suffer no
criticism. There are many examples of this. In March
the entire staff of the big timber firm Ahlstrom was
arrested in Norrmark in the vicintiy of Bjorneborg, and
taken away. On the way all the sixteen prisoners were
murdered. The organ of the Red at Bjorneborg considers
this rather awkward, and, as the outrage has caused a
melancholy sensation in those parts, the paper denounces
it in mild terms. The Helsingfors paper, Tyomies,
prints the article. But immediately the paper receives
an indignant protest from two Red Guardsmen, who sign
their names. " When reading such things," they write,
" one gets into a very melancholy mood, for an article
like this comes either from short-sightedness or provoca-
tion. It is not fitting to throw a shadow on all our noble

137

and valiant boys in the Red Guard, for they are sacrificing
their lives for the rights of man, for equality and fraternity,
and for the good of the coming generations." The paper
gives as an excuse that the article was taken from a
provincial paper ! Such a defence of murderers who have
assaulted sixteen unarmed prisoners, people who have
never taken up arms against the Red, speaks its own
plain language.

The revolutionary tribunals excite the indignation
of the Red Guard. Their sentences are absolutely too
mild. As early as the 8th February, the General Staff
express their dissatisfaction with this. On the ioth
February the officers of the Guard have a meeting, and
declare that the sentences passed by the tribunals are
mere jokes — the Guard must intervene. " If the punish-
ment of the butchers is not made more stringent," it is
said among other things, " the number of prisoners
will be greatly reduced, for then the men will begin to
make use of self-redress."

The secretary of the revolutionary tribunal at
Helsingfors defends his institution in a newspaper
paragraph on the 17th February. He says : " We do
not intend to be lenient with the really guilty, but
hitherto only very few such have been given to us. Do
your best, you who know the really guilty. Prove their
guilt, for without proof no one can be sentenced."

No, this was exactly where the difficulty was. Who
was guilty, and how could his guilt be proved ; this
guilt which consisted in a " counter-revolutionary spirit,"
the refusal to support the Red, the fact of being a
"bourgeois," or, on the whole, unsympathetic? No
tribunal could cope with such things. Such things the
Red Guard must try to manage by themselves.

There were, however, revolutionary tribunals that
suited the Red better. An investigation they were

138

obliged to carry out at the station town of Toijala in
Tavastland may serve as an example. Hear, first, a
small incident as an instance of revolutionary idealism.
A strict officer at the front had sent a Red Guardsman
to this tribunal who had been in a state of excessive
intoxication when the order was given to attack. The
tribunal finds : " The court have not been able to look
at the accused in the same light as our opponents, but
are of opinion that as an enthusiastic fellow fighter he
should remain at the front and, following an inner call,
should there fight for liberty against our enemies.' '

Counsel for the prosecution at the tribunal at Toijala
was a certain Tanner, a shoemaker, who had been
liberated by the Red from the house of correction, where
he had served three terms ; the last time, for robbery
and murder. At the disposal of the tribunal there was
a " flying corps " led by one, Vuori, a tailor. The latter
drove round with his troop, and arrested the employers
in the neighbourhood, took them away for " trial,"
but shot them on the way, and rifled the bodies. The
number of his victims was not known, but Tanner, who
was arrested and tried after the insurrection, confessed
to having been the author of about thirty murders at
which Vuori did service as executioner.

A peculiar reason makes the Red themselves commence
an investigation of these outrages. A " White " railway
guard, Soivio, living at Toijala, had been arrested, and
was tried after he had been kept several days in prison.
He is found not guilty, and is to be liberated, but the
liberation is postponed until seven in the evening. The
cause is that it is desired to await the approach of dark-
ness. When it is going on for seven, Tanner gets uneasy,
for Vuori has not appeared. He then asks two other
soldiers to be so kind as to see to Soivio, " if Vuori is
not in time." Soivio is to be taken home by sleigh,

*39

and shot on the way. At seven o'clock, however, when
Soivio comes out with his little daughter by the hand —
she had come to fetch him — there is a sleigh drawn up
outside the gate. Vuori who has now come, and a
comrade, invite Soivio to get into the sleigh. Soivio
hesitates, but finally takes his seat with his daughter
on his knee. But Vuori lifts the little one down again,
muttering something about " trespassers M not being
allowed. Vuori sits beside Soivio, the other Red man
stands on the runners behind them. When they have
driven for a while Vuori says to Soivio : " This is your
last drive." Soivio makes no answer, though, according
to Vuori's evidence, he grows " perceptibly nervous."
When they pass Soivio's home, he asks permission to
put a basket of provisions he has with him in the road,
as a sign that he has passed. The Red do not permit
it. They reach the outskirts of the forest, and here the
murder is to be perpetrated. But by this time Soivio,
too, has made up his mind. Suddenly he throws his
arms round Vuori, and tries to throw him out of the
sleigh. They wrestle for a while, but in the meanwhile
he who is behind has got out his revolver. It is, however,
out of order, and he must content himself with striking
Soivio's head with the butt-end with all his might. Vuori
has let go the reins, the horse bolts, and finally Vuori
is in the snow. In no time his comrade is also thrown
out and gone. Vuori has got up and shoots like one
possessed. But Soivio is lying at the bottom of the sleigh,
and the horse is in a panic. It races across fields and
meadows, the sleigh is hurled across fences, but at last
Soivio can jump out at the edge of the parsonage wood.
He walks quietly back to his home.

This occurrence gives rise to an investigation on the
27th February. Vuori — but not Tanner — is considered
to be so heavily compromised that on the nth March

140

he is brought before a tribunal of comrades. Here it
transpires that every time he has shot a prisoner Vuori
has gone up to the body, and cut off the head with his
sword. He is in the habit of showing his bloody sword,
and boasting of the many throats he has cut. Vuori,
however, will not put up with standing in the pillory
alone. He summons his immediate superiors, " the
Staff " (to which also Tanner belonged) before the tribunal
of comrades, and accuses them of having given him vague
orders. The Staff have never said that prisoners should
not be murdered ; on the contrary, they have recom-
mended him to do what he likes with them, " and," they
have added, " if you find a swamp, throw them into it."
" Besides," says Vuori, " it was the general opinion in
the Red Guard that we should not be able to get the better of
our opponents if we did not kill theni" The Staff have
done nothing to counteract this opinion.

The judicial proceedings are, of course, without result,
but Vuori's statement is confirmed by an " impartial "
witness.

A militiaman has been called to a village near Toijala
by the relatives of one of the murdered men. He reports
as follows : " The murder has been committed by Vuori
and his troop. On the telephone I gave an account of
my investigation to the Staff of the Red Guard, and asked
them to send on some men who could protect the popula-
tion. But I got the reply that the matter does not concern
the Staff, and that such cases need not be investigated.
At the same time I learned that the Red Guardsmen
considered it permissible to kill prisoners, and, according
to my conception, this view has been supported by the
Staff, as the latter has given Vuori continued authority
to act as chief of the flying corps, although the Staff
know very well about the murders committed — even
from Vuori himself."

I4i

It cannot be denied that the Red Government's
proclamations against deeds of violence and cruelties
look very feeble and pale against a background of this
sort. Why were such men as Vuori and Tanner not
punished ? Why was nothing done to counteract the
" general opinion " in the Red Guard that prisoners
could be murdered ?

But we continue. The papers of the Red contain
many proofs that the grossest criminals were allowed to
go scot free.

In the Labour suburb Kottby, outside Helsingfors,
there was a flying corps whose chief was the butcher,
Hjalmar Felin. His most trusted man was called Lilja.
Already on the 2nd February Felin has murdered three
persons, and on the 3rd February he murders a fourth —
an organised working-man. From the murder he goes
straight to the home of the dead man, and institutes a
" house-search/' On that occasion he stole a gold ring,
but to the enquiry of the dead man's wife about what had
become of the body of her husband, he gives no reply.
(It was, as a rule, difficult to get the Red to hand over
the bodies, for they were only unwillingly shown to the
relatives, maimed and rifled as they were.)

Felin was, however, arrested on the 5th February,
and his comrades examined. In like manner Lilja is
taken into custody. Nothing transpires as regards
Lilja during the inquest. Only a witness has seen him
dragging an old man along the high road. Lilja had
at last landed his man in a snow drift, and kicked him
so long in the face till the heel of his boot had battered
in his forehead. But this took place already during
the general strike in November. As the matter may,
therefore, be considered stale, Lilja is set free on the
12th February. Felin's case is worse. The examination
of the witnesses which takes place in the Government

142

Buildings — by whom conducted it is not stated — gives
inter alia the following result : " Felin's comrades have
not taken part in the murders, but ' if the murdered men
were butchers they approve of the action.' " At all house-
searches Felin has pocketed objects of value. A witness
describes the following incident : The witness is walking
along the high road and sees Felin conducting a man
into the wood. Some shots are heard, and Felin comes
out of the wood again. He says to the witness : " Now
Traskman is shot/' The witness : " But that was not
Traskman at all. It was the old man we arrested already
during the general strike, but who was set free again
later on." Felin : " Indeed ! Well, then, it was not
Traskman, but anyway, it is all the same. It was always
a novelty to this one to be shot."

Such a thing was not, however, considered a sufficient
reason for sentencing Felin to imprisonment. On the
24th February Felin's comrades carry the following
resolution by eighty-eight votes against nil.

" We, members of Kottby Red Guard, have every
day read in the papers with what terrible brutality the
citizens of Finland are fighting against us without shunning
any means whatever. We therefore will not allow that
our comrade is kept imprisoned in such times, owing to
the information of private persons, with which crimes
we, all men of the Guard, have not had occasion to make
ourselves acquainted, then we demand that our comrade
is at once set free, and sent to serve with his tioop."

The style is, as will be seen, a little clumsy, but the
intention is good enough. The minutes further contain
a resolution that all the papers concerning the investiga-
tion against Felin are to be burnt. This, however, has
not been done. At any rate, here we see what were the
results of the tales about the cruelties of the White. On the
25th February the " leading commission " set Felin free.

143

The papers of the Red yet contain many more proofs
of the spirit of cruelty reigning among them. The
Government received letters from the relatives of the
murdered requesting investigation, and so an enquiry
was often instituted. In reality, there was very little
to investigate, for generally the writer already knew the
Barnes of the murderers. Nevertheless an inquest was
held.

On the 3rd April a murder and robbery was
investigated in the parish of Sibbo. The two murderers
confess, but are not imprisoned. They only receive a
warning not to absent themselves. On the 2nd April
the perpetrators of the murder of an innkeeper in the
parish of Mohla are brought to trial. They are two
young Red Guardsmen. They seized the innkeeper in
his home, and took him before the Staff. Here he was
sentenced to death. They then seized him again, and
were going to take him to the wood, but on the way
he ran to a little house where some of his relatives
lived. He begged and prayed the two to shoot him near
the house, so that his body might remain with his people,
but this could not be allowed. He was shot in the wood,
his body rifled and thrown into the river. When the
members of the Staff were examined, they explained
that the innkeeper had been sentenced by them in their
capacity of members of the " summary court-martial,"
because he was an eager adherent of the butchers. They
had ordered him to be shot, but had not taken the trouble
to ascertain whether or how the sentence was accom-
plished. The solemn abolition of capital punishment was
not thus taken seriously by the tribunals themselves.
In the parish of Str6mfors the Red Guardsmen openly
confess to having murdered and plundered two peasants.
On the 22nd February a crofter's son has been murdered,
and the body rifled and thrown into the river ; also the

144

home of the murdered man has been plundered. The
murderer is known, " but could not be tried as he is
at the front/' In the parish of Mantsala three cases
of murder are investigated. One of the murdered persons
has been shot, the other has had his head shattered, and
the third has been strangled. The committee for the
investigation report that, besides these three, about
twenty persons in the same parish have been murdered.
Among the murdered are also " neutrals." At
Helsingfors an ex-policeman has been shot. A witness
communicates the names of the two murderers. To the
question whether the murderers were acquaintances of
the murdered man the witness replies : " No, they did
not belong to his friends, but they had had to do with
him before, for he had sometimes been obliged to take
them into custody when on duty." The day after the
murder one of the murderers had been to the mortuary
to look at the dead body. " He only wanted to see where
the bullet had gone in," he said. An ardent interest
in the trade !

Finally, we shall here communicate one or two Red
documents of another description, yet characteristic,
too. On the 21st March an anonymous subordinate
official in the hospital of the Red at Hyvinge writes to
the procurator — " the supreme guardian of the laws."
In the letter the murders in this part are very casually
mentioned, though they were revolting enough. Eleven
persons had been shot, among them a woman and four
working-men/ L The reason for this was a list that had been
found containing the names of these eleven. It concerned
the distribution of food, or something equally neutral.
The eleven were, however, shot, and the Red Press stated
that the murders had been committed " by mistake."
The anonymous correspondent wishes to call the attention
of the procurator to the fact that besides the murders,

145

embezzlement, extortion, and the like has taken place,
all of which, " if not directly criminal, is at least liable
to cause disapproval." He wishes, however, to have an
investigation started. It cannot be carried out by the
local judges and " staffs," as they are all compromised.
Therefore a special commission ought to be sent to the
place, but in order to be able to accomplish anything
it must be accompanied by an " armed command."

A militia constable at Helsingfors reports as follows : —
On the 5th February at ten id the evening he observed
four Red Guardsmen taking a prisoner on to the ice at
Hagnas Square. He went up to them, and asked them
where they were taking the prisoner. They answered,
" He has been sentenced." The militiaman asked them
to show him the document. They declared that they
had nothing to show, as the sentence had been passed
orally from a passing motor car. The Red Guardsmen
were angry, and declared that the whole matter did not
concern the constable, that it was an " internal affair
of the Red Guard." The constable was, no doubt, of
the same opinion, but as a crowd had collected round
them, he was obliged to keep to his interference, and
demand that the four should take their prisoner to the
" staff " in the People's House close by. Two of the
four now went away with savage curses, the others
obeyed the constable — ascribing it to the crowd — and
the prisoner was conducted to the staff.

As more than one thousand murders have been
committed, volumes might, of course, be filled with
descriptions of the different variations of cruelty and
brutality with which they were carried out. Often the
murder is caused by an informer. This was the case
when the manager of a commercial-school at Helsingfors,
Mr. Rosenquist, was arrested because his servant had

K

146

seen some counter-revolutionary papers on his writing

table, and murdered in the motor car on the way to the

prison. The same is the case when an ex-policeman

was shot because he was White. His wife had informed

against him. Many examples of inhuman cruelty and

sustained torture could be cited. A seventy-year-old

clergyman is murdered with bayonets in his bed, and

another clergyman is held fast while a Red Guardsman

kicks him, and two other cut a cross in his naked breast,

and rub salt into the wound. Some unfortunate people

were buried alive in a swamp ; on others the fingers were

cut off to get at the rings before they were killed ; one

victim was boiled in a Russian camp kitchen, etc. There

is evidence that outrages without number of this kind

have been committed. This is confirmed by the inquests,

as well as by the Red prisoners' own confessions. But

in the statement above only such outrages have been

included as have been mentioned by the Red in their

own documents. They give us the best idea of the

insurgents' view of the crime.

From them it would seem safe to infer that the leaders
did not evince any special energy in putting a stop to
the savage epidemic of murder. This negligence on
the pait of the chiefs also forced all the better elements
in the Guard to silence and subjection. For, of course,
" better elements " were found. In many districts there
were honest Red " staffs " who did no man harm. They
only kept guard, and wrote passports and certificates of
curious orthography. But, besides them, there were all
these " flying corps," all these revolutionary tribunals
and staffs, where liberated convicts and their like played
the principal part. They took the lead. They showed
how a real revolutionary ought to treat citizens and
butchers. They drowned the scruples of their comrades
by giving them stolen property, and letting them buy

147

valuable objects cheap that had been taken from the
bodies. Thus all lntlHW participants in the citato ;
thus one defended oneself against the cowards and timid
persons. And when the murderers were allowed free
play it became the general opinion that all who had not
joined the Red movement were legitimate sport. Their
homes might be plundered, their lives taken ; they were
butchers and the enemies of the people, no matter what
position they filled in society.

However, it was not until defeat began to be obvious
to all that the thefts, murders, and general ravages
began with unequalled fury. The destruction of the
last weeks can only be conceived as the work of mobs
worked up into a state of frenzy.

In the following these ravages will be briefly touched
upon.

6. THE FALL OF THE RED POWER.

By the peace with Germany Russia pledged herself
to remove immediately both the Russian troops and the
Russian Red Guard Corps from Finland. This obligation
was not, however, fulfilled. On the contrary, huge bands
of Bolsheviks poured into Helsingfors at the fall of
Reval, and Russian officers continued as hitherto to
direct the war operations of the Red. The decision of the
peace treaty could thus only be carried through by force,
and when the Government of Finland requested armed
help from Germany, this request was complied with :
Germany sent troops to Finland.

It would have been only natural if the Red had laid
down their arms before such a prospect. General
Mannerheim issued a proclamation to them adjuring them
to give up their mad enterprise now that their defeat
was unavoidable. But the leaders of the Red thought
of no such thing. They would not, or perhaps they

K2

148

could not, stop the movement they had set going, and
they did everything to conceal the serious condition of
affairs from their adherents.

Tammerfors was taken by the White army. The
Germans landed at Hang0 and Lovisa — fell into the rear
of the Red. But by incredibly false reports of the fighting
the people's courage was kept up. It is significant that
in the time from the 3rd to the 12th April, from the
landing of the Germans to their entry into Helsingfors,
the Red Press without ceremony denied the presence
of the German troops in the country. It is true that
German uniforms had been seen, but they were worn by
" disguised butchers/'

The Russians and the leaders of the Red, however,
perceived very well what was now before them. The
Baltic fleet was seized by a fever of activity, with the
result that most of the ships succeeded in making their
way out of the ice and disappearing towards the east.
Less efficient vessels were sunk or left. The leaders of
the Red, however, prepared for flight.

It is perhaps the most offensive trait in these dema-
gogues that in the hour of destruction they went on
rousing their bands against a superior foe while they
themselves fled, after having filled their pockets with
millions of the notes of the State Bank. On the 8th April
the Red Government left Helsingfors. But the last
number of their official organ for that day contains
another appeal from the great " Central Council," which
deserves to be cited here on account of its characteristic
contents. It runs as follows : —

" Comrades.

" For more than two months the Finnish working-man
has fought with ardent enthusiasm against his blood-
thirsty extortionists. During this time he has doggedly
defended the great common cause of the working-men.

i49

When the Central Council of the Working-men and the
Commissioners of the People by the will of the People
took over the affairs of the country, they were perfectly
rotten. We have been obliged to work day and night
in order to remedy these scandalous, perverse conditions,
while at the same time our comrades have fought against
the brutish foe, who by falsehood and violence has
gathered his forces from all the four corners of the world.
In the bloodthirsty ranks of the White army it can be
proved that, besides these enemies of the people, who
call themselves Finns, there are also, amongst others, the
first executioners of Nicholas the Bloody, there are
officers of Korniloff's, there are riflemen who have gone
through a school of murder in Germany during the world
war, there are morally corrupt ruffians who have been
bought with much money and big promises of good
offices in Germany and Sweden. Even some Chinamen
have been found in their ranks, people whom the
bourgeoisie have hitherto profoundly despised. Ex-
senators and other Mannerheimers have bargained about
the independence of our country, both with Sweden and
Germany. None of these countries have openly ventured
to declare war against the People of Finland, but still
each of them has unofficially helped the butchers. In
doing this they have, in fact, joined Finland's capitalists
in their war against Finland's Labour population. All
the time the Red army of the working-men has been
obliged to fight against a guard superior in numbers.
As yet our opponent has not succeeded in crushing our
revolutionary army, which insists on its right, with his
foreign handy-men trained in the school of murder ; he
has spread about all sorts of provocative tales, inter alia
about large German forces having landed either upon
Aland, or Abo Skerry, or — as now lately — at Hang0.
When the actual course of events has been cleared up,

150

these tales have always proved to be hugely and
deliberately exaggerated. So much is true that the
White, protected by the German name, have plundered
and murdered unarmed, peaceful working-men in the
said districts. The Germans, these the great ruffians of
the world war, are loathed by everybody, and therefore
the White are trying by the aid of the terror of the Germans
to paralyse the soldiers of our Red revolutionary army,
as they are not able to defeat them in any other way.

" Working-men ! Revolutionary soldiers ! We must
not let the provocative terror of the Germans damp our
revolutionary courage. We know, certainly, that they
are clever at their trade of war. But hitherto the Germans
have not to our certain knowledge engaged with the forces
of the Red Guard in close formation. And we imagine
that the imperialist government of Germany hesitates
to embark on such an enterprise, for the working-men
of Germany will not, it is presumed, silently permit
this to happen, as their representatives have already
before raised their voices against the armed excursion
of their government to Aland.

"Comrades! Working-men! All that are found in
the ranks of the White Guard must be treated as the
enemies of the people, whatever nationality they belong
to. The revolutionary working-man does not even turn
aside from a German, professional murderer, for he
knows that he is fighting for liberty and right.

" You Finnish working-man, peasant, and crofter, for
centuries your race has been tried ; you have been forced
to suffer great hardship. Your fame has gone round the
world, although you have lived in the slavery of capitalism.
You are just now under the eye of the proletariat of the
whole world. Column upon column is written daily
about your stubbornness, your strong fight. About you,
who have only a couple of months ago shaken off your

I5i

fetters. It is yon who have made an independent
republic of Finland. It is also your duty to defend
the existence of this republic. And it is worth defending.
Never before has this barren Finland been so dear to us
as now. The Labour population of Finland have cleared
the land, ploughed up its soil ; they want to taste the
fruit of their work, too. That is the aim of the Finnish
labourer's revolution. In this country no Swedish or
German capitalists must be allowed to rule. The affairs
of this country must be managed by the majority of the
Labour population. Therefore, to arms for our country,
every Finnish working-man ! Forward, revolutionary
soldiers ! Defeat will be the same as the doom of our
country, and the slavery of the Labour Class. To
arms, then, working-man, rise against the plunderers !
Would that every man and woman would do their duty,
and our victory would be certain. Not only victory to
the armed rising of the Finnish labourers, but to the
revolutionary fight of the proletariat in all countries.
May the victorious revolution of the Finnish Labour
Class prosper ! May the International Revolution
prosper ! "

This document must be designated as a monument to
the Finnish Labour movement. A curious mixture of
falsehood, calumny, and a distorted view, absurd tirades
against the " enemy," and a collection of arguments that
are staggering in their variety. Here are flaunted both
internationalism and nationalism, patriotism, class-war,
democracy and revolution. Here the never- varying
character of the Labour movement is glaringly seen.
It drew its nourishment from any source whatever,
provided only the result was hatred of those in power.
The great falsehood, on which the whole appeal is based,
the fact that it was issued at the very moment when the
leaders fled, is not the least characteristic feature. The

152

Finnish Labour Party never had leaders with backbone,
courage or character.

It was, of course, impossible in the long run to keep
up the illusion about the victorious revolution. The
retreat was begun. A difficult retreat, during which
as much plundering, murder, and incendiarism as possible
was carried out. At Bjorneborg, Raumo, and Abo all
the steamers in the harbours were sunk, railway engines
and bridges were blown up with dynamite, all safes
which had not j^et been burgled were broken into, all
the money found in the customs and post-offices and
at the railway stations was taken. The supply of stamps
and receipt-stamps was appropriated, the food supplies
were either carried away, burned or soaked with
petroleum, shops were looted ; even the tables at
the telephone exchanges were smashed with sledge-
hammers.

In the rural districts there were still worse doings.
Here there were not so many valuable plants that could
be destroyed, so instead the farms were plundered and
burnt. How complete was the destruction is seen,
amongst other things, from the following list of burnt
and destroyed property in the little municipality of
Vesilaks, south of Tammerfors. The Red burnt down
149 dwelling-houses and 355 outhouses, and they took
away with them 89 horses, 688 cows, 353 sheep, 67 pigs,
400 his. of rye, 278 his. of barley, 2,800 his. of oats, 66 his.
of beans, 830 his. of potatoes, and 27 his. of wheat.
In other words, in this municipality there was nothing
but the bare ground left. The farmers were plundered
of the little they possessed of objects of value. The
Red at Viborg, on the 21st April, gave a receipt for
having received from their troops at the north front of
objects : 33 kgms. of silver, 47 of plate, 857 of copper,
126 of brass, etc.

153

Of course, these robberies were for the most part only
the outcome of a blind lust of destruction and robbery.
For many of the Red left a wife and children or parents
and other relatives in the devastated land. There was,
however, a certain sense in transporting as much valuable
property as possible into Russia. Lots of engines and
railway carriages landed there ; machines and supplies
from the factories were taken there ; a number of type-
writing machines, etc., were on their way there ; as
much as could be taken of food supplies was dragged
there. For it was the intention to found a Red, Finnish
colony in Russia, and there await the world revolution
which would also give back Finland to the Red.

The immense material harm the Red did to their
country may be made good in the course of years. It
is more tragic that the population in the parts occupied
longest by the Red had to undergo the greatest sufferings.
When the retreat became unavoidable, many were
murdered who had hitherto been spared, and the forced
mobilisation was now accomplished by dragging along
a great number of prisoners, putting them into the ranks
or shooting them on suitable occasions. It was dependent
on a mere chance what destiny was in store for the
prisoners. This is seen, e.g., by the various measures
taken with regard to the pupils of Mustiala Agricultural
College in Ta vast land. Thirteen were taken by the Red
already in February. Nine have undoubtedly fallen, or
been murdered, four have disappeared without trace.
In April 32 pupils were arrested. Out of these, three
landed at the Red fronts. They were put into their
ranks. Two have returned. The third has disappeared.
The 29 pupils left were taken south by train on the
20th April, but were assaulted in the train by their
guards. Twenty of them were killed in this massacre.
Five succeeded in jumping off the train and escaping.

154

They were saved. Four of them were separated from
their comrades, landed in a prison, and were also saved.

Part of the men forced to mobilise in Tavastland were
taken to the railway station at Riihimaki, and as they
refused to carry arms, they were locked up in the Russian
barracks there. But Riihimaki was soon on the eve
of surrender, and rather than let these imprisoned
Tavastland peasants fall into the hands of the liberators,
the Red tried to murder them. They — and this time
it was not Red men, but armed women — placed them-
selves at the doors and began to fire random shots
among the prisoners. The latter rushed about in their
terror, were hit and fell. The result was twelve killed,
and eight or ten wounded. Of the latter, two had lost
their reason.

The upper staff at Valkiakoski Paper Factory in
Tavastland were conducted to forced labour by the Red
on the 15th April. Already on the way to the place
of work two were shot, a cashier and a clerk, both over
fifty years of age. On the 20th April another two were
selected, taken away, and shot. On the 24th ten at a
time were conducted to the wood. They were walking
along a path when their Red custodians, who were walking
behind them, suddenly began to shoot. The prisoner
in front, a clergyman, succeeded in escaping ; the nine
others were killed. Now there were only six prisoners
left. They had heard the reports from the wood, and
understood what they meant. They did not have to
wait long for their doom. Later in the day they were
taken into the wood, where they were shot. However,
from this group also one man succeeded in escaping.
All the bodies of the murdered men, who were in part
atrociously ill-used, were plundered.

The murders had been committed at the order of the
" Staff." This latter now caused bottles of petroleum

155

to be distributed among their men. After three more
murders on peasants the neighbouring village was set
fire to, and its twenty-two farms soon formed one sheet
of fire. Now the enemy might come if he liked !

At Viborg prison a tragedy similar to that at
Riihimaki was enacted, only with the difference that
here the Red did not fire among the prisoners, but threw
hand-grenades among them. The effect was terrible,
a number of killed and wounded, and an unspeakable
terror among the survivors.

Finally, only a few words about the great execution
ground .the Red established at the station of Kouvola,
near Kymmene river. To this place prisoners were
conducted from the whole river valley, from the cities
of Frederikshamn and Kotka, from the big factories by
the river, Karhula, Kymmene, Voikka. and Kuusankoski.
The Red themselves thought they had executed about
400 persons here. More than 200 dead bodies have
been found either buried in a swamp or thrown in the
river. But many have been carried away by the current,
and will perhaps never be found.

Among those murdered in this place was also the
director of Finland's largest industrial plant, Kymmene
Works, G6sta Bjorkenheim. He had not only been an
able manufacturer, but he was also a humane man and
a benefactor to his workmen. He had tried to make
Kymmene factory town into a model place according
to the most advanced social principles. Though his
own workmen took his life, he was not the victim of
personal hatred or private vindictiveness, but of the
system. He was a capitalist, therefore he had to go.

During the whole of the insurrection Bj6rkenheim
had been kept confined in his villa. A representative
of the Swedish Red Cross lived with him to protect his
life. But one day he was taken by the Red, and he

156

refused the Swede's offer of accompanying him. Instead
he was accompanied by a young physician, who was
very popular among the Red, because he had success-
fully nursed their wounded. The prisoners and their
custodians reached the bridge across Kymmene river.
Reports were heard, and the two fell down dead. They
were stripped of all their clothes and thrown into the
river. The clothes were sold by auction later on.

Such was the downfall of the Red power. Only the
leaders and a few others succeeded in escaping to Russia.
More than 70,000 people remained as prisoners in the
hands of the victors. Among the prisoners, virtually all
who had filled posts of trust carried lots of notes and
valuable objects on their persons. But also on privates
and women enormous sums were found. Two hundred
thousand marks, sewn into the clothes of a prisoner,
was no special rarity.

7. POSTCRIPT.

Compared with the stupendous spectacle of the world
war, the insurrection in Finland is only a trifling incident.
In the great drama of the " Break-up of Russia " the
events in Finland constitute only a small scene. But
to the people of Finland the war of liberation shaped
itself as the mightiest struggle in the ancient conflict
carried on in this countiy between West and East,
between culture and barbarism.

The Finnish Labour Party called themselves Social
Democrats. But by their actions they have shown that
they were not worthy of the name. They trusted to
a young, most unformed and immature proletariat, and
to the thirst for liberty which the Russian oppression
had called to life in the whole people. They drew their
weapons for this agitation from all the arsenals open
to them. Social-Democratic phraseology, Syndicalism,

157

Russian Nihilism, and Terrorism all run into one, in
their agitation as well as in their acts. In such circum-
stances they could not, of course, find any consistent or
ideally secure way through political life. They tried for
a time to keep within the bounds of a parliamentary
party, but failed to do so, and did not thrive within
them, although the possibilities of success were greater
in Finland's parliament than in any other. They took
up arms and resorted to revolution. But even then,
when they thought they were following the revolutionary
roads marked out by the Russians, they could not
act consistently. The revolution was absurd in itself
without an economic revolution, but the economic
revolution was not feasible. So there they were, power
being the only goal they were able to perceive. And
when defeat loomed threateningly, they were equally
at a loss. They stirred up their own bands against a
superior foe, and they themselves fled.

Was then the war of the White a war against the
Social Democrats ? No, for the Red did not represent
the Social Democrats. Was the civil war a class war ?
Yes, and no. Yes, because the Red Guard was in a
manner a class army. No, because the White did not
fight the Labour Class as such. The Red Guard was to
a certain extent the cuckoo's brood in the nest of the
Labour Party. It grew strong within the organisations,
attracted all the bad elements, and also swallowed up
the better ones. It was the bearer of the Russo-revolu-
tionary traditions of the years 1905-6. .It had become
intoxicated with the March revolution of 19 17. It
therefore easily slipped into Bolshevism. When later
on it became the determining factor within the Party, it
got the additional power over its members — then close
upon 200,000 organised working-men. It sacrificed them
as unscrupulously as all others. Thus the Labour

158

Party, and with them virtually the whole Labour Class,
were drawn into the Red movement. In this sense we
may speak of " class war," but not in the sense in which
the word is generally used. For this movement was
not social but political. It was not a conflict between
proletariat and bourgeoisie. It was a struggle for the
power on the part of the Red, a struggle for Finland's
independence, for law and order on the pait of the White.
It was a war between a fanatical international movement
to which the State and the Nation meant nothing, and
the defenders of the sacredness of the native country
and of the life of the community.

The Red threatened everything that the Finnish
people had learned to treasure as its greatest values
during the long struggle against Russian oppression,
whether it was practised in the name of Tsarism or
Anarchy. These values may be comprehended in the
words " Western culture." The Red bands had been
led astray, if you will — infected is, perhaps, the better
word. They were infected with the Russian plague
now called Bolshevism. Lawlessness, disorder, want of
reverence for all cultural values, contempt of the life,
happiness and property of their fellow-men had seized
them, and dragged them down into chaos.

But as yet the country has not recovered after the
catastrophe which has shaken it to its foundations. As
yet there is infinite work left to be done. An independent
political life is to be built up with respect for the law
and the subjection of the individual to the demands of
the community. The problems are many, the difficulties
great. Mistakes must be made, reverses must come.
But the foundation has been laid. Finland has been
liberated from Russian oppression.

Every people, be it as small and weak as it may be,
clings to the thought that it has its special mission in

159

the history of the world. Finland has seen her mission
in that she has stood as the outpost of Europe in the
East. She has received the blows directed against
Scandinavia. Now she has warded off, perhaps, the most
dangerous, at least the most treacherous, attack of the
East. She does not count on gratitude for this deed, but
she counts on sympathy. No person in Finland is glad
at the misery the Red insurrection has called down on
the Labour Class. Nobody sees a triumph of the
bourgeoisie over the proletariat in the victory of the
White. The victory in one respect is of mighty, of
positive, significance in that the Russian influence has
now been beaten down. And to build up the new,
independent Finland it is needful that this influence
shall be wiped out for ever ; just as it is needful that
every citizen learns to obey the law, and consider himself
as a member of the community. That is the condition
of Finland's becoming a real State — a Western culture
state and law state.

LONDON I

HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C.2,

PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY.

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